IWS donation helps Amsterdam firefighters purchase cardiac device
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AMSTERDAM -- The Amsterdam Volunteer Fire Department received a boost Wednesday thanks to a donation from Interstate Waste Services.
“This helps us in a lot of different ways,” Chief Jim Crites said shortly before receiving a $10,000 check Wednesday afternoon. “It helps us to be able to purchase much-needed equipment and to be able to keep up with supplies. Basically, it allows us to be better equipped to help the residents around our community and the surrounding areas.”
Among the items the department is purchasing with the money is an AutoPulse Resuscitation System. It is a portable, battery-powered mechanical device that delivers automated, continuous chest compressions for cardiac arrest patients. Because the Amsterdam area is more than 20 miles from the nearest hospital, the device fills a critical need.
“It does the compressions for you,” Crites said. “It allows you to be able to do other things in case you don’t have enough people. We’re way out here, and time is everything. This really helps.”
Crites, who has been serving as chief for about a year, said his department has around 15 volunteers and another two or three paid positions. That staff covers a radius of about 25 miles, he added. The department also has mutual aid arrangements with Bergholz, East Springfield and Loudon Township.
For Interstate Waste Services, the donation represents a way to show support for the area.
“Being who we are and being your neighbor right up the road definitely led us to talk with Mayor Jim Phillips and say, hey, we’re going to continually do what we can to support local businesses and certainly the host community,” explained David Cieply, executive vice president of landfill and rail operations for IWS.
Having grown up in Monessen, Pennsylvania, Cieply said it is important to help small communities and the volunteer fire departments that serve them. That is why the company is committed to being a good neighbor.
“Absolutely,” said Cieply, who has been in Amsterdam since 2020, when IWS purchased the APEX landfill. “Since I’ve been here, we have given out turkeys and hams in Wintersville and in other places. We’re going to be more involved with Harrison County as well.”
He added that the landfill currently has more than 200 employees and is looking to add between 25 and 30 new employees. A career fair is planned at the Puskarich Public Library in Cadiz, he added, and a four-day fair also is planned in the coming weeks.
Those employees represent a considerable increase from the 80 or 90 workers who were at the landfill in 2020, he added.
Crites said the donation arrived at a good time for his department.
“We didn’t have one of these devices, and with the money coming in, we had the opportunity to purchase it. So, it was a no-brainer,” he said.