BETTER THAN HEARSAY - Closer Maybe

ASHLAND - Contract negotiations remain in limbo regarding ambulance service provided by the town of Ashland to the town of Prattsville.

Four months have passed since a new pact was due with no end in sight although something will eventually have to happen, even as a very interesting item has become part of the back-and-forth offers.

Ashland, over the past few years, has had a deal with Prattsville and the town of Lexington for emergency medical response and transport.

Scheduled renewals with Prattsville have been rocky the past two years, a scenario that apparently boils down to communications about money and what Ashland does with dollars leftover from one budget to the next.

This column wandered into those fiscal weeds a month or so ago, coming out worse than if the hapless writer - not Br’er Rabbit - had been the one tossed into the briar patch, so we tread there again delicately.

One pretty consistent number has emerged throughout the talks, that being Ashland asking Prattsville to pay $310,100 and 88 cents in 2025, showing up in Item 7 of the proposed contract.

That number, according to figures provided by Ashland town supervisor Richard Tompkins, would then be reduced to $240,100 and 88 cents, subtracting $70,000 in estimated revenue.

Prattsville town supervisor Greg Cross is arriving at a different bottom line, stating in an April 15 email to Ashland, “Item 7 it should be $70,000 plus $45,000 for a total of $115,000 credit towards 2025.”

Cross, in the email, stated that would leave, “a total due of $195,100.88,” and in a subsequent phone interview said, “that’s important to say, so  everybody knows, those are numbers Ashland already provided us.”

There have been a series of meetings between the parties, some including other town council members, and it is at one of those sessions where Cross says he verbally agreed to the numbers he is using.

“We want to get an agreement,” Cross said. “We obviously understand we have to pay [for ambulance service] but we didn’t just dream up these numbers. They are based on information provided by Ashland.

“It’s simple math to me,” Cross said, also stating in his email to Ashland, “if you can make these corrections, I will call a special meeting to approve, sign and get you a payment.”

Cross’s choice of the word “corrections” is also apparently connected with Item 16 within the most recent contract proposal from Ashland.

Item 16, states, “at the time the county ambulance service commences operation, Ashland shall pay to Prattsville the sum of $40,000 representing Prattsville's portion of the fund balance for the fiscal year 2024 and $28,000 representing the fund balance for fiscal year 2025."

Cross, in his email states, “Item 16 should read $40,000 from 2023 and $28,000 from 2024,” correcting the timelines on monies reportedly set aside by Tompkins for equipment purchases, etc. 

But at the risk of being hurled into the pricker bushes, there is no certainty the commencement of a county ambulance service will be a reality.

Since last fall, the Greene County Legislature has been hosting discussions linked to the possible creation of a ground-breaking, countywide system, eliminating the current municipal-based network.

While the six mountaintop towns embrace the plan, including Ashland and Prattsville, it is a year away, at the soonest, and not a definite.

The legislature’s special meetings take place monthly. Their next session is in mid-May when they are supposed to produce more than ballpark numbers on how much the county system would cost.

Early projections indicated it will be at least $3.4 million more than what the towns and county are now paying out for ambulance service, combined, bearing in mind every dime ultimately departs from taxpayer pockets.

And by the look of it, on top of the $3.4 million, some towns will likely be paying appreciably more than now, such as Prattsville, Lexington and Jewett, which contracts with the town of Windham.

Windham already has an Advanced Life Support system, providing two crews with on-board paramedics and transport to a hospital.

Jewett residents can make emergency calls and pay a single bill once a year, spared the headache of hiring workers, haggling with insurance companies and multiple daily sources of heartburn.

The same is true for Lexington, Prattsville and other towns similarly under contract in the valley. They all may, in the future, remember these as the halcyon days in terms of how much they will later be paying.

And meanwhile, it is the six mountaintop towns who stirred the bee’s nest warning lawmakers, eighteen months ago, that the system is headed toward a cliff with no way to shift into reverse.

The whole idea is to consolidate services and vastly improve worker wages and benefits, creating a sustainable and highly efficient county agency.

Meanwhile back in Ashland, Tompkins is saying he might turn over to other council members any ensuing talks with Prattsville, hopeful a resolution is close, maybe as soon as this week.

“Maybe if there is a change in personalities we can put this thing to bed. Maybe new eyes will see something I’m not seeing,” Tompkins says, sticking to his numbers as the ones Ashland has put on the table.