by Jay Lawson
The Town of Webb Board signed an agreement committing the town to partial funding of Advanced Life Support (ALS) services, to be administered by the Old Forge Ambulance Corps, starting on January 1, 2016.
Prior to the signing of the contract on Monday, November 16, the Board met with Ambulance Corps representatives to reach an understanding of the contract’s final details.
Councilman Mike Ross and Councilwoman Kate Russell were the primary questioners.
They made it clear that they, as individual board members, were on board with the Town’s need of the service and the Town Board’s role in helping to provide it. Their questions were primarily forwarded in clarifying pertinent aspects of the contract, they said.
“My questions have nothing to do with the spending of the money for that purpose, because I totally agree with it,” Councilman Ross said.
On hand at the meeting, representing the Ambulance Corps were Terry Lehnen, Kathy DiVincenzi, Dan Rivet, Larry Murphy and Richard Risley.
The contract’s introductory nomenclature signifies the Board’s authority in entering into the contract, said Town Attorney Richard Frye.
“[It cites] the statute that authorizes the town to provide that kind of service,” he said. “The town can do only those things that the Town Law says it can do, but that’s the section that says you can do it by contract.”
Ross also had a question about the contract’s Establishment of “Fees for Services.”
He said the contract makes it sound like the Town is setting the rates, rather than the Ambulance Corps.
Terry Lehnen said the Ambulance Corps’ billing service will set the rates. The town’s role will be in approving them, as it sees fit.
Councilwoman Russell questioned the phrasing of this clause.
“Our Comptroller has a number of opinions that say the Town has to establish the fees,” Attorney Frye said. The phrasing satisfies this, he said.
“[The Town] will establish those fees,” Frye said.
“The Ambulance Corps will advise the town of the generally acceptable rates and charges for such ALS services in the locale,” Lehnen said.
This is a yearly contract, Lehnen said, so the Town of Webb will be revisiting it.
Ultimately the contract amounts to the following, according to Attorney Frye.
“The Town has the authority to [contract for ALS services with the Ambulance Corps], and the Town does not have the authority to just give money to them. So we are paying for a service that they are providing,” he said.
Payments from the Town are scheduled to start by February 1, 2016. That will allow the collection of taxes and sufficient funds to find their way into town coffers, Frye said.
Councilwoman Mary Brophy Moore said that, other than the financial accounting that is stipulated in the contract, additional accounting would be useful.
“[The board] would want an accounting of the number of ALS calls, and where they are going,” she said.
Moore said the board would like information as to how many calls were dispatched in service of Inlet and the Town of Forestport, in addition to the Town of Webb.
“I think that breakdown is something people would be interested in knowing,” she said.
It would also give a good indication of the local ALS needs, she said.
“We are perfectly willing to do that. I don’t think it has to be in the contract, but that’s fine,” Terry Lehnen said.
Councilwoman Russell said the information would be of particular interest at budget time for the Town of Webb, therefore she asked that it be available by September 1st of each year.
Lehnen said the Ambulance Corps could provide it quarterly, along with the financial reports.
Councilman Ross said it’s important to establish everything in writing for the sake of future Town Boards.
“It’s not always going to be the same people dealing with this,” he said.
The goal in funding the Ambulance Corps is to help in providing round-the-clock ALS service. But what if that were to be interrupted by things such as staffing shortages, Ross said.
That would mean the money is not being spent as expected. Would the Town see a reimbursement as a result?, Ross said.
Lehnen said funds that went unspent in a particular fiscal year would roll into the next.
Kathy DiVincenzi said she would expect that such shifts would not go uncovered. Rather they would be picked up an another ALS staffer. This would result in greater overtime costs, she said.
Either way, any staffing position that had been vacated would be filled, as soon as possible, Lehnen said.
“And we still have our volunteers,” Lehnen said, which will help fill any gaps.
Supervisor Ted Riehle said it’s his belief that the contract on the table is the proper start for the new ALS initiative between the Ambulance Corps and the Town of Webb.
He admitted that the territory is uncharted, but he said he was comforted by the fact that it is an annual contract that can be revisited yearly.
Terry Lehnen emphasized that the current discussion is with regard to the arrangement between the Town of Webb and the Ambulance Corps.
A public awareness effort will be undertaken in the near future, she said.
“We look forward to sharing plan details as soon as they become finalized,” Lehnen said.
Members of the ALS Ambulance Corps Committee are EMS Captain Terry Lehnen, Fire Chief Charlie Bogardus, Ambulance Corps President Kathy DiVincenzi, Secretary/ Treasurer Tony Tormey, Fire Commissioner Pete Croneiser, Mike Senf, Barb Winslow, Gary Staab, Patrick Russell, Larry Murphy, Richard Risley, Dan Rivet, Robert Moore, and Carol Perkins.