LEGISLATURE STUFF - Getting Down to Brass Tacks

CATSKILL - The initial numbers are in as the Greene County Legislature moves toward the possible creation of a county ambulance system.

Lawmakers met for the fourth time on the hot button issue, Wednesday night (too late for this edition), joined by county administrator Shaun Groden and area emergency medical services professionals.

Prior to the gathering, held at the county Emergency Services Center in Cairo, Groden, provided a preliminary peek at how much it will cost to operate the ground-breaking operation.

The dollars represent only the expense of hiring more people than currently employed by the various municipal and non-profit agencies, and paying them more money with better benefits and a retirement package.

But those aspects of the plan are likely to be the make-or-break economic question, even as lawmakers hint they won’t take “no” for an answer.

All of that remains to be seen. The stated goal is to hold two more sessions before making a decision and getting the budgetary ball rolling, aiming to be up and running in 2026.

Cutting to the chase, Groden, in a WRIP radio interview, said taxpayers are presently spending roughly $7.1 million for ambulance service.

The larger portion of that burden, just over $4.5 million, comes from annual town budgets, with the county contributing $2.5 million-plus for the so-called “flycars,” paramedic-manned response units, road-ready 24/7.

No matter how the pecuniary pie is sliced, we mules of taxation pay the full freight which would be increasing by at least $3.4 million under the countywide program, according to Groden’s introductory figures.

If the new county department is established, it would also require between 6 to 10 administrators and as many as 15 rigs, equipment, supplies, etc.

The rigs could be purchased from the existing municipal and flycar fleets with equipment and supplies becoming consolidated and simplified, expecting to nicely reduce those bottom lines.

Groden and his numbers team have not yet gone that far, with many details and variables remaining to be worked out, and no decision made yet on whether this will become a reality or not.

But the $3.4 million has been further broken down, in terms of the actual amount added to an average, single-family-home, tax assessment.

Groden estimates that tax bill would rise by $52 for the employee wage hike and $55 for the added workers, totaling $107 annually.

Whatever the final, final cost is, there are already sensitive talks about how the money ought to be generated, though in the long run, every dime is coming from the left or right pocket of taxpayers.

The current thinking is to set up a 7-3-5 network response team composed of 7 patient transport ambulances staffed by EMT’s and 3 additional transport ambulances staffed by paramedics.

They would be backed by 5 non-transport vehicles staffed by paramedics, patterned after the existing flycars, whose primary job is to arrive at the scene of a call with greatest swiftness.

If and when the new system is put in place, that 7-3-5 scenario would likely be modified, depending upon the actualities of call volume during busier and less busy hours, particularly after bedtime and before dawn.

“The problem isn’t our overall response time,” Groden says, pointing to the excellence of all squads. Patient transport is the more complex element.

“This is a topic du jour for all the counties around us, if not a statewide and industry-wide issue,” Groden says.

“We have eight agencies covering fourteen towns, but they are disjoined. Many towns are saying that system can’t continue as is,” Groden says.

“We are dissecting where we are and deciding which direction we want to go in, though no one knows exactly what that is yet,” Groden says.

Time is of the essence for legislature chairman Patrick Linger who was openly in favor of the countywide system prior to the current talks.

“Many towns are already calling uncle. They’re telling us they can’t sustain the increase in costs for services,” Linger said in a WRIP radio interview.

“When the mountaintop supervisors came to us with this, you have to remember, we’ve been here before,” Linger said.

A decade ago, a special Task Force was formed to study the condition of ambulance service, concluding that a countywide system would be the wisest and most cost-effective course of action.

“The decision was left up to the towns. It died on the vine. I’d like to avoid that here,” said Linger, who was deeply involved in the Task Force. 

In the late fall of 2023, a unanimous contingent of mountaintop government leaders went to the legislature asking for help. The county responded by hiring an outside consultant to do another thorough study.

That report offered four improvement options including sticking with the status quo, making some adjustments, or going countywide.

“We’re the ones who were asked to look at this by the towns,” Linger said. “If the county ends up having to take over, it needs to be in the 2026 budget. That process has already started on our end.

“That’s why there is a push for this now. Generally speaking, our budget is in place by Labor Day so I would like to start rolling this out to the public sometime this summer,” Linger says.

If the decision is made to create a county system, lawmakers are expected to reach out to the citizenry in a series of public meetings.

“Our members have to sit down with the towns [in their district] and ask, ‘Are you happy with what you have now?’” Linger says.

“We want to standardize service, transport and training, make this a real career opportunity for the workers,” Linger says.

“New York State has continuously turned down requests to make EMS an essential service, similar to police and firefighting,” Linger says.

“I can’t tell you why that is,” Linger says, “but we, here in Greene County, can decide it is an essential service and act accordingly.”