LEGISLATURE STUFF - Exciting and Maybe Less Exciting

CATSKILL - It isn’t always action-packed at the Greene County Legislature where mundane matters also require close attention.

Lawmakers are in the midst of picking people for what could be a pair of sub-committees that will begin a study on the possible creation of a countywide ambulance system.

Members are expected to be drawn from among emergency services professionals along with town and county government officials.

They will compile a complete overview of the current conditions and costs connected to ambulance response and transport, coordinating with an outside consultant retained by the county this past December.

Fitch & Associates, with its home office in Platte City, Missouri, has been hired for $49,000 plus out-of-pocket expenses up to $100,000, primarily operating via computer Zoom.

The company will also make at least one visit to the area, getting boots on the ground, seeing first hand the challenges facing the county in terms of the vast variations in terrain and population densities.

It is expected the consultants, once underway, will wrap up their part in the project within three to four months, leading to what lawmakers and town and village leaders hope is an answer to a persistent issue.

Ambulance service is an irreversible transition from volunteer units to paid, full time squads, providing both on-scene care and patient transport to a hospital without breaking the backs of we mules of taxation.

“We have been down this road before and came away without a solution to the problem” legislature chairman Patrick Linger says, referencing a Task Force assembled a decade ago for the same purpose.

A countywide response and transport system was proposed at that time but did not get enough support from key municipalities to move forward.

“It failed back then. We don’t want to put that effort in now and have it fail again. We need to come up with something actionable to improve the system we already have in place,” Linger says.

“I believe that can be done with this consultant. Part of the reason they were chosen is because they are not based in New York State.”

“They will be able to look at our situation with very different eyes and present ideas that we maybe haven’t considered,” Linger says.

A few familiar names in emergency services are starting to emerge as possible members of one sub-committee, awaiting confirmation.

They will apparently be joined by a second sub-committee composed of one or two legislators and town supervisors from the valley and the mountaintop, as well as other experts.

While the prospect of getting everyone on the same emergency services page is generating some excitement, other actions taken by lawmakers, although important, are producing less hubbub.

Legislators approved a resolution authorizing participation in Round 4 of the New York State Septic System Repair Program.

The program, working with the Department of Environmental Conservation,

offers funding to counties to help eligible property owners replace septic systems with grants for up to 50 percent of the cost.

DEC has provided a list of “priority waterbodies” inside the county with the number of potential structures within 250 feet of the waterbody that are in the geographic scope of the Round 4 program.

While the “towns and villages on the mountaintop in the New York City watershed are already serviced by a septic repair and replacement program operated by the Catskill Watershed Corporation.

“Greene County is interested in supporting eligible property owners…excluding those water bodies located within the NYC watershed,” the resolution states, designating the Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District  as the program contact.

A letter was dispatched to county administrator Shaun Groden from Bureau of Water Resource Management, Section B chief Susan Van Patten, formally inviting the county to participate.

“The State Septic System Replacement Fund Grant Program was established in 2017 to improve water quality by replacing failing or inadequate septic systems around a waterbody,” the letter states.

Some water bodies identified on the list include the Schoharie Reservoir, Huntersfield Creek, Batavia Kill, Onteora Pond, Tannersville reservoirs, Hannacroix Creek, Hudson River, and Mink Hollow Brook.

In another matter, lawmakers awarded the bid for supplying meat, canned goods, frozen supplies and paper goods to Ginsberg’s Inc.

Ginsberg’s Inc. based in Hudson, submitted the lone bid, being awarded a 7-month contract for all meat, canned goods and frozen supplies (January 1-July 31, 2024) and a 12-month deal for paper goods (January 1-December 31, 2024), the resolution states.