I'm sorry to hear about your problems in Middletown. Many Ocean County communities (Toms River, Brick, and the Seasides to name a few) have already dealt with it by instituting municipal Paid Services.
The thing to remember is, Lakewood did it first. Lakewood is not looking to disband its volunteer EMS system, I dont even know if it still exists. They are talking about disbanding their PAID Municipal EMS Department.
The EMTs working for Lakewood EMS were forced by the town to take a 30% Pay cut, and their jobs are only safe until January 1, 2011.