Parx Donates $89K to Bensalem EMS

For the fifth year in a row, has donated nearly $90,000 to

“Parx is a great community partner,” said Fred Harran, director of public safety. “This money helps fund a third EMS crew during our prime service times.”

Prime times for EMS are 10 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Saturday.

EMS Executive Director Tom Topley explained to Patch why the third crew was needed.

“When the casino opened in December 2006, we had no idea how it would impact our service,” he said, noting that their calls increased 20 percent in the last five years. “For most businesses, an increase in volume is a good thing, but not for us.”

In addition to increased volume, Topley said their time to get to calls was also increasing.

“Our response time was 8.6 minutes and that increased to about 17 minutes,” Topley explained. “After the third crew was added, our time dropped to 8.5 minutes.”

Parx spokesperson Carrie Nork-Minelli said the casino is glad to be a community partner.

Topley said he was appreciative as well.

“This partnership is extremely important to us,” he said. “Anytime we’ve asked them to help us they’ve come through.”