DUANESBURG — Almost out of money and still lacking volunteers, the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps members are hoping to make the changes necessary to keep the organization running.

Members of the corps’ board of directors are to meet at 7:30 tonight at the station off Cole Road. Duanesburg officials said last week the meeting is a last ditch effort to correct membership issues so that the town will restore funding support for the service.

“Our finances are such that we’re beyond the brink of insolvency,” said Board Chairman Charles Leoni. “We need to make some radical decisions to get us back on the straight and narrow.”

The ambulance corps received $43,000 from the town, which was a little more than a quarter of its overall spending in 2007. Town officials budgeted $50,000 for the service this year, in addition to $20,000 in an escrow account to reimburse the corps for new medical equipment.

“I do know they’re just about out of money,” said town Supervisor Rene Merrihew. “I don’t know if they have enough to make it through the month.”

But the town has refused to release the money to the corps after learning of its continuing recruitment issues. The lack of volunteers prompted the ambulance company to miss a number of calls in January.

Some former volunteers have blamed this shortage on Bruce Smith, the ambulance service’s former captain, who they described as persistently undercutting the company’s leadership. Smith stepped down as the company’s captain, but has remained an active volunteer.

In February, town officials informed state police dispatchers in Princetown to stop alerting the unit for emergencies until the administration could produce a schedule of when volunteers were available. They later amended this request to allow the ambulance corps three minutes to be en route to an emergency before dispatchers would call crews from Rotterdam or Schenectady.

Town Board members extended this time to eight minutes in March, after the ambulance corps provided the rosters they had requested. Since that time, Merrihew said there have been missed calls, even during times when the roster suggested the ambulance corps had available crews.

Jean Frisbee, a member of the Duanesburg Town Board and volunteer with the corps, said the service has since pulled two of its ambulances off the road as a cost-saving measure. The corps’ Web site was no longer functioning Monday.

Earlier this month, the town hired Albany attorney Terrance Hannigan to prepare an expert report about the corps and make a recommendation for its future. Merrihew said Hannigan’s legal advice will also be needed in the event the ambulance service is dissolved.

Calls placed to Hannigan’s office were not returned Monday. Merrihew said the town could provide the ambulance corps with emergency funding this month if it is able to provide evidence of a turnaround.

“Basically, anything that gets done must come from the ambulance service itself,” she said.

Leoni declined to elaborate on the decisions the ambulance corps might make tonight. But he said an important factor will be to see if there is enough support from volunteers to refill the company’s dwindling ranks.

“If we don’t have the right support from the members, we might as well close the door,” he said.