BETTER THAN HEARSAY - UnfortunateBut

PRATTSVILLE - The whole situation is “surreal” if you ask Ashland town supervisor Richie Tompkins and “bizarre” if you put the same query to Prattsville town supervisor Greg Cross.

Those words are being applied to a snafu between the neighboring towns regarding ambulance service that has resulted in Prattsville requesting a look-see into the matter by the NY State Attorney General. (Please see companion “Hearsay” column on the issue and its ripple effects).

This is not the first such dust up between Tompkins and Cross surrounding ambulance service delivered by Ashland to Prattsville through a yearly contract that also includes the town of Lexington.

A similar scenario emerged in 2024 when Cross initially refused to sign a new deal, alleging Tompkins was not transparent, arriving at his budget figures, and claiming Prattsville was financially “being held hostage.”

Ashland, providing service to Prattsville and Lexington, charges them for their portion of the overall operating budget based on the percentage of calls emanating from each town.

Prattsville is at 47.7 percent (an increase of 7.7 percent from 2024) with Lexington at 25 percent and Ashland 27.3 percent for what is roughly a $600,000 annual bottom line.

Prattsville ultimately signed the 2024 pact but is digging in its fiscal heels for 2025, exchanging terse letters with Ashland through their attorney, steadfastly saying they will get ambulance service elsewhere

Cross has not clarified from where or from whom that will come. Tompkins says neither he nor the State Department of Health (DOH) have any clue, putting Ashland on the horns of a moral dilemma.

A new pact was due at the end of December which Lexington signed and Prattsville did not, citing numerous “concerns” laid out by their attorney, Diana DeSanto, from the firm Trainor Pezzulo and DeSanto.

Ashland responded but Prattsville demanded more details that Cross says were not forthcoming, ignoring a 10-day deadline to use or lose the deal.

Prattsville also said they were “not interested” in an offer from Ashland to keep providing service for 90 days, at the new contract terms, while Prattsville seeks a different vendor as they say they are doing.

A stalemate has been reached. We can straggle only so deeply into the legal weeds, at this stage, about what is or is not financial fact.

But for Prattsville, the standstill and the appeal to the Attorney General boil down to money - how Ashland determines their costs, how they divvy up those costs and what happens to money not spent at years-end.

Those details are also true for Ashland although there is more to their story. “DOH says we are no longer required to go to Prattsville,” Tompkins says, referring to the State ambulance service regulatory agency.

“And Prattsville has told us not to come which is fine, if that’s what they want. But then there is the human side,” Tompkins says.

“The scary part is, somebody in Prattsville might need an ambulance. What if we simply don’t go?” Tompkins says.

Due to the contract, when a call for Prattsville goes to the Greene County 911 dispatch center, Ashland gets toned. If they don’t go after two tones, the call is shifted to neighboring Windham.

That is a scenario that happens regularly if, for example, Ashland is already answering a call. The backup network is set in motion.

Will things be different, however, now that Prattsville has told Ashland not to come because of a contract dispute? Will Windham or any other unit want to fill that void on what would be a regular basis?

The county’s flycar system, bringing paramedics to the scene of every call countywide, will still respond but they do not provide hospital transport.

That is Ashland’s responsibility under the contract with Prattsville. Another unit could go to Prattsville, but in order to recoup their costs, they would need to bill the individual person.

Ambulance officials will tell you the percentages on individual payback are in the 30 percent range, so it gets very complicated, even as Ashland is expected to continue responding in Prattsville without getting paid.

“When you have a lawyer you have to take their recommendations into consideration,” Cross says. “When we asked Richie to go back to last year’s numbers, he basically told us to go pound salt.

“Hopefully we can still hash something out,” Cross says. “We aren’t trying to be impossible. We know emergency medical services are expensive.

“But this is brutal, how it is impacting our bottom line. Nobody is happy about the situation,” Cross says, “but at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to our people for public safety and taxes.”

Tompkins, equally dug in, says, “if [Cross] thinks I’m not doing this fairly, I will sell him one of my ambulances and give him a helluva’ deal on it.

“He can then do all the staffing and training and buying of ambulances and billing. I wonder if the people in Prattsville know about everything that is really going on here,” Tompkins says.

“It is unfortunate,” Cross says, “but"…

“This is unfortunate,” Tompkins says, “but”…