MORE LEGISLATURE STUFF - Did You Say 4 Million Dollars More

CATSKILL - It was always going to boil down to how much this would cost and that number is closer to being known but not ironclad as the Greene County Legislature continues its talks on emergency medical services.

Lawmakers held their latest meeting on the possibility of creating a county ambulance system, on Wednesday night (too late for this edition).

Leading up to that session, separate sit downs have been taking place with current ambulance administrators and other rescue personnel in the field.

The purpose was to combine their facts, figures and perspectives on the issue with those of an outside consultant brought in by the county to conduct a thorough study of the existing system.

All those findings were slated to be shared, Wednesday, with municipal leaders who have been an integral part of the discussions since they began, late last fall, aimed at cutting through all previous rigmarole.

Similar discussions occurred a decade or so ago, coming to the precipice of moving to a unified county network, only to have key town officials retreat in the eleventh hour, dooming the plan.

While no such dead end is anticipated this time around, with many county leaders privately saying they are prepared to move ahead with or without acceptance from the fourteen towns, the goal is reaching total support.

Before anything can happen, lawmakers want to present a black-and-white bottom line to local government leaders, hoping to do so by this summer.

Multiple variables will determine that figure, such as higher pay and health benefits for workers, buying out current municipal squads (in terms of equipment, supplies, etc.) and potentially purchasing new rigs.

Initial estimates to operate a single system, rather than disparate municipal units, have been put at between $10 to 12 million annually, officials say.

That dollar amount would represent an increase of a minimum of $4 million, based on how much the towns are currently paying, along with what the county contributes to overall emergency medical response.

While no hard-and-fast number has been arrived at, as yet, “I don’t think it will be less than that,” legislature chairman Patrick Linger says.

Linger and county administrator Shaun Groden have been spearheading the conversations. “We’re on the right track,” Linger says.

“If we’re going to build a system from the ground up, we have to take all preconceived notions out of play. It’s up to the legislature to do that.”

While the current system of separate groups is not broken, the county’s best emergency medical people, and town officials in charge of their municipal budgets, acknowledge it is not sustainable.

And it is widely agreed the days of individual ambulance teams inevitably are over, even if no one is exactly sure how the future is going to look.

“We’e still calculating the money,” Groden says, noting one major key to the final expense will be the number of fulltime and parttime workers.

Differing totals for the necessary, at-the-ready ambulances have been proposed by the group of administrators and the consultant.

The top number is 12 ambulances during peak daytime hours with 9 at night, when emergency calls are, on average, lessened.

As few as 10 daytime and 9 nighttime rigs have been suggested, a small distinction, seemingly, but one with significant fiscal ramifications.

“If we want to do 10 and 9, I can tell you how many manhours that is on an annual basis,” Groden says. “Obviously, if we go 12 and 9 that would be different. We’re talking about more staff, more everything.

“Do we even have that personnel now, spread over the various towns and the flycars?” Groden said, referring, in the latter, to the Greene County Emergency Medical Systems Inc. system.

The flycars are currently manned and womaned 24/7, literally on the road, immediately responding to the scene with a paramedic on board.

That system does not offer patient transport to a hospital, however, presenting an equally daunting shortcoming to be remedied. 

“Will we have the personnel to do this, if we go to twelve ambulances?” Groden says. “If we don’t, where will we get them?”

It is hoped that a countywide network, with a sweet benefits package and greatly higher salaries, linked to the State retirement system, will draw individuals already in the workplace or interested in a career.

Training and an opportunity to advance in the county-based department will, again hopefully, make Greene County a prime job destination.

“On paper, it is relatively easy to take what would be the new hourly pay rates and health benefit factors for X number of workers, and give the legislature that number,” Groden says.

“But what if they say, ‘Umm, excuse me Shaun, did you say an additional four million dollars?’ That’s a hard pill to swallow in the short term even if reading off the same hymnal is better over the long haul,” Groden says

“And then there’s the question, ‘How will this impact each town,” Groden says, in terms of taxation that will likely be factored on assessment.

Bearing the cost in mind, and its still unknown elements, Linger says, “this isn’t something we can do nothing about anymore. This is town officials telling us something has to change, not the legislature.

“I believe a county system is the way to go,” Linger says. “And if a town wants to do something else on their own, that’s up to them.”