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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-11-07TB Um7 -01 TOWN OF DRYDEN ®a TOWN BOARD AfEETJNG NOVEMBER T, 2001 I Board Members Present; Supv Mark Varvayarus, Cl Runald Beck, Cl Thomas Hatfield, Cl Charles Hatfield, Cl Deborah Grantham Other Elected Officials: Bambi L. Hollenbeck, Town Clerk Jack Bush, Highway Superintendent Other Town Staff•, Mablan R. Perkins, Town Attomey Henry Slater, Zoning Offices David Putnam (TO Millers), Town Engineer PUBLIC HEARING SPECIAL PERMIT APPLICA'T`ION OF JOHN POSO COAL 386 GULF HILL ROAD upv Varvayarnis opened. the PLIblic hearing at 7;00 p.m. and Town Clerk read the notice published in the Ithaca Journal Board members have previously received application materials, Supv Varvayaxxis asked if there were any questions from the audience and there were none. uPv Varvayariis read the letter received from the Teirnpkhs County Plann; ag Department stating that they have determined that it has no inter= community, county or ziwe impacrs. John Poso stated tball the reason for the application is that he needs additional work and storage space. This is an addition to an existing building. Hearing left open, PUBLIC HEARING SPECIAL PERMIT APPLICATION OF ALICIA D AIRXANDER '1'O OPERATE A BED 8D BREAKFAST AT 136 HUNT BILL ROAD upv Varvayanis opened the public hearing at 7;07 p.m� and Town Clerk read the notice pubV5hed in 71ze Ithaca Journal. Board members have previously received applicmtion materials. It was rioted that appli.eant had not yet arrived. Llearig loft open. PUBLIC HEARING 2002 PRELIMINARY BUDGET upv Varvayanis opened the public heal at 7;10 p.m. and Town Clerk read the notice published in The Ithaca dvurrmL Supv Varvayanis asked if there were comments on the budget other than the ambulance matter, acid there were none. Supv Varvayanis asked Altty Perkins to give a brief history of how the ambulance matter came to this point_ Atty Perkins - For many years the Town has contracted out for ambulance service_ Exclusively that contract has either been with Neptune Hose Company No 1 of l]ryden, Inc. or r Dryden Ambulance, Inc. Dryden Ambulance, Inc was incorporated on January 6, 1992 and Page 1 of 12 TB II -7 -01 the first contract between Dryden Ambulance, Inc and the Town was for 1992. Historically I don't have the number for shat year, but I've got a couple other numbers, For a number of years then the Town has contracted with Dryden Ambulance for the service , and in 1993 the amount of the contract was $54,814_ f'zn not sure whether the additional payment cams into play, whether that was being paid at that time- The first record I have of it being in the contrast' was un 1995 when the total contract was $132,790, paid $93,500 m January, and $39,290 at the end of October, In December of 1995, the Town of Dryden farmed an ambulance district, and the ambulance district included the entire Town of Dryden plus the Vi]tage s of Dryden and Freeville, both of wl_i.ich opted to become part of the district by rmative action that they had to take to be in the district. The unginal contract for 1.996, which is the first gear that there was a contract between Dryden AmbLilua)ce, Inc and the Town of Dryden Ambulance District was for $135,595, and the Toren was to employ 2 full Itiroe licensed paramedics and one part time licensed paramedic. For the most recent contract in 2001, the amount of the contract was $153,590, and during the year 2001 a number of issues arose regarding the paramedics and who they warped for, the hi Ting of them, discipline of theta and so forth, and on August 8, 2001., the Town Board passed resolution 0130, which was passed unanimously and it says "resolved that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Toum Supervisor and the Town Attorney to give Uryd.en Ambulance, Inc. notice that the Town of Dryden will not be furnishing paramedics after December 31, 2001, axed is accepting proposals for the entire service, and it is furthea resolved that the Town board hereby authorizes the Supervisor to advertise for proposals from other ambulance providers," Due to a lack of commurdcation between Mark and rase, C thought he was going to contact Dryden Ambulance wid he thought I did. I assume now that it was my responsibility and unfortunately Dryden Ambulance didn't learn about this through a,riy direct contact, but from reading the minutes on the Tawas of Dryden web page. And far that I apologize, However, I would like to point out that Dryden Ambulance slid have plenty of other notice about this request for proposals going out, and certainly h ha,d ample time to respond to it, Later In the sui-xi er or early fall, requests for proposals went out for ambulance service- 'They went out to Dryden Ambulance, Bangs Ambulance, TLC, Rural Metro and one other provider whose Tkame escapes me, but they are providing service in Newark Valley. They asked for the RF`P and a sent it to them. Those k'FP's vmre clue 'in the Torn Hall last Wednesday, the 3), &L, at 4:00 pram, where they have been available fur public inspection since that time. I've prepared a little spread &beet which T have given to the board, which briefly attempts to put all the salient points of khe different proposals on one sheet of paper. ( epics distributed to audience -) to the spreadsheet I tried to give you the facts of each proposal and the whole idea of the discussion I th ask should be let's look at what the facts are, let's look at what each proposal, is all about. This spreadsheet doesn't have all of the points that can be said about any of th.e proposals, lout it's intended to be a starLing point. for a rational, fact= based discussion about what you should do for ambulance service. 1'd be happy to answer any quesianzzs thrall the board has abouf the RFP or the spreaddsheel' and hopefully, that will serve as a. basis for the start of your discusaion- upv Vorva ants oslced the audience iF they heel had a chance to look over the proposals- One audience member wondered when the residents of the Town had been told that this was happening and how were they supposed to know. Supv Varwiyaniu Mated that the matter had been the subject of at least one newspaper article, an ad ire the newspaper, there was a question about it at the candidate debate- Pace 2 of 32 TB 11 -7 -01 To give the audience a chance to look at the proposals and /or the spreadsheets, Supv Varvayanis asked Alicia Alexander to explain briefly her bed and breakfast application. Ms Alexander stated that she has been using her farmhouse as a bed and breakfast with three bedrooms available for clients. There is enough space in the driveway to accommodate six cars and the property is surrounded by ten acres of land. She is applying for a variance for her sign, which is too close to the road. Supv Varvayanis said that he had received one phone call from a neighbor, Peggy Walbridge, who is in favor of the bed and breakfast, but would like the lighting on the property to be shaded so that it points downward. Cl Beck asked about the question the Health Department had about the number of bedrooms. Ms Alexander stated that a back up plan in case of failure of the present system has been designed with the Health Department. ZO Slater stated with respect to her sign, it probably could not be placed in conformance any place on her property. Ms Alexander will apply to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a variance for the sign. Supv Varvayanis asked if there were any other questions or comments from the audience with respect to the Poso application. There were none and the Supv Varvayanis closed the hearing and opened the Town Board meeting. The Board reviewed the environmental assessment form (contained in file). RESOLUTION #205 - SEQR NEG DEC - POSO APPLICATION 386 GULF HILL ROAD Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board issue a negative declaration based on the SEQR review for the special permit application of John Poso to construct a 480 square foot addition to his existing facility at 386 Gulf Hill Road in the Town of Dryden. This is an unlisted action and the Town of Dryden is the lead agency is uncoordinated review. The Supervisor is authori7ed to sign all necessary documents. 2nd Cl Beck Roll Call Vote Cl Beck Yes C1 T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes There were no prior conditions with respect to this application because it is a non- conforming, pre - existing business. RESOLUTION #206 - APPROVE POSO SPECIAL PERMIT Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the special permit application of John Poso to erect a 480 square foot addition to his existing facility at 386 Gulf Hill Road in the Town of Dryden, subject too the Standard Conditions of Approval (7- 12 -00), with the exception of #7. 2n,I Cl C Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl Beck Page 3 of 32 Yes TB 114 -01 Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes Cl Grantham stated that she believed some corrections needed to be made to the short: environmental assessment form for Pais Alexander's application. Number 5 was changed to "new". Number 8, should be marked "yes" with a. note that a variance is needed for the sign. There were no other comments, and the public hearing was closed at: 7:35 p.m. The Board reviewed the short environmental assessment form (contained in file). RESOLUTION #1207 - SEQR NEG DEC - ALEXANDER BED & BREAKFAST APPLICATION Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVE D, that this Town Board issue a negative declaration based on the SEQR review (as amended in Part One) for the special permit application of Alicia D. Alexander to operate a bed and breakfast at: 136 Hunt Hill Road in the Town of Dryden. This is an unlisted action and the Town of Dryden is the lead agency in uncoordinated review. The Supervisor is authorized to sign all necessary documents. 2nd Cl C Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl Beck Yes Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes Cl Grantham stated that standard conditions of approval should apply, there should be a condition to obtain a conversion permit from the Health Department, and that the applicant adiust the lighting so that it points downward. Atty Perkins suggested there be a note in the approval that the sign is not being approved, and requires a variance. C1 Beck asked if the porch light was subject to our regulations because it was a business, and wondered if we were setting aprecedent with this condition. ZO Slater stated he was reluctant because it was her private front porch light, although as Cl Grantham pointed out, she is turning the house into a commercial use. Applicant has agreed to shade the light. This is a special permit application and that is the distinction should a resident complain about a neighbor's light. RESOLUTION ##208 - APPROVE ALEXANDER SPECIAL PERMIT Cl Grantham offered the .following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the special permit application of Alicia Alexander to operate a bed and breakfast at 136 Hunt Hill Road, subject to the following conditions: 1. Standard Conditions of Approval (7- 12 -00) shall apply; 2. Applicant shall obtain a conversion permit for the septic system from the Tompkins County Health Department; 3. Outside lighting shall be adiusted so that it points downward. This approval shall not constitute approval for applicant's sign and applicant will seek a variance for the sign. Rage 4of32 11d Cl C Hatfield Roll Call Vote C1 Beck Yes Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayauis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes TB 11-7-01 With respect to the budget bearing, Supv Varvayanis asked if there were any comments for anything other than the ambulance matter and there were none. Supv Varvayani:; - 1'll start with a request for Factual comments on the propols, Does anybody have any? Bill Ackrayd - I'd like to follow what Mahlon started, and go back a little bit. Let's Fake some steps back and realize how we got here and why we're here. Since I was on the comuzittee originally and worked with the Town to establish the Dryden Ambulance District and paid paramedic program, I f l I'm well qualified to speak to #hat. Back in 1995 when Dryden Ambulance recognized the fact that the requirements for volunteers was made so tough that we couldn't: recruit volunteers to provide the advaneTed level of care that the New York State Realth Department was requiring, we looped at that and they Board of Directors of Dryden Ambulance said IRwe're not an employer, we don't have a benefits package, we don't have a payroll, we're all volunteers"_ And we said okay, how do we accommodate thatt. It was suggeste=d to us that we talk to the Town_ They are an erriployer, they have a benefits package, a retirement package, e0c, and henceforth, a very cooperative: and very workable solixt ion was made_ They would provide the paramedics, and we VA)uld provide the facilities, the e:quipmerit, the drivers and the other volunteers for off -shift hours or suppletnenW coverage_ 'f'he progr=) worked very wes]lr iu fact, it worked so well that it was modeled throughout the State. Other volunteer ambulance services have gone through this same dilemma. Our solation worked very well for three or four years_ It's only been in the last couple of years that we've had some issues we can't resolve. I guess I'd like to know, from the Town Board, from Mahlon, or whoever rn,ight know, have you ever received any complaints about the level of care, level of service_ our response tunes, or the cost of our service, from any constituents or residents of the 'Town of Dryden? Supv Varvayanis - Yes. B Aclrcyd - You have? Supv Varvayanis - I've received several complaints about response time to the western side of Town. Dana Abbey - And have you as Town Supervisor ever shared those complaints with anyWdy from Dryden Ambulance? Supv Varvayanis - No_ D Abbey - Thank you. B Ackroyd - So 1kve were unav re of those cOraplaints. So we had no opportunity to remedy them or fix them. But again,, to recess back, Why are we here torxight? Is is that we have .failed to provide the service at a reasonable cost, a good response time? Page 3 of 32 T4 11 -7 -o 1 Supv Varvayanis - You are here tonight because it was, as I understand, the entire board's opinion that you had come in several times asking for more autonomy and more control over the paramedics over the course of two years, and what we did was a response to your request. B Ackroyd - By putting our proposals to other services? Supv Varvayanis - By putting out the proposal that we would still pay for the paramedics through the contract. You would be totally responsible for the paramedics. So your only complaint is that you do not want us to see if your proposal is competitive? B Ackroyd - No. Not at all. Supv VZrvayanis - What's your complaint? B Ackroyd - I'm just trying to figure out how we got to where we are at today. What was the catalyst for the .Board going out looking for proposals? Supv Varvayanis - You. Cl Grantham - You all have come in several times to this Board and talked about the problem with the dual supervision of the paramedics, the problem with retaining paramedics, the problem with salary as part of that. We've raised the compensation. We raised it very recently. I think that we pay more than just about anybody in the area at this point. So we've had these conversations xvith you all, with you all raising these: issues and you've at times said we need to have one supervisor for the paramedics. So what we tried to do was have a process that would give us information about services that are out there, give us something to compare with, have you do a formal proposal for us. Bangs also did a formal proposal. Other services 0 didn't. So now we can sit and look at what you're proposing and what they're proposing and think about the needs that you yourselves have raised and figure out the best way to handle this. B Ackroyd - I think the catalyst for us complaining or coming to the Board wanting more control, as you put it, over the paramedics is because there were personnel issues, compensation issues, and other issues with the paid personnel that were not: in our employ, that were having a detrimental affect on our operation. Therefore we, unsolicited, probably did stick our two cents in and say this is causing us grief, we need to get something going. Cl Grantham - Well I think it's good that you came and told us that those were the issues, and we don't have any problem with you coming and telling us that those are the issues. We are trying to take a really positive, above - board, and methodical way of figuring out what to do next. B Ackroyd - I think the other thing is that I hope, as it states in our proposal, that the Board takes what I want to call an apples to apples comparison of the level of service provided for the dollars quoted. I think assembled here tonight are more than just people from Dryden Ambulance and Dryden Fire Department. We've got representatives and officers from all fire departments in the Town of Dryden who provide rescue and fire protection. And I think it's a sign of unity that we have proudly served this Town for over 25 years, much longer when it: comes to fire protection. And potentially the emotional side of it could have been insulting, not knowing all the facts and that's „any I wanted to know if you had received complaints. But I think it's a sign of unity and teamwork here from everybody and all these organizations that provide fire and life saving protection to you and your families throughout this County are here to provide the service and want to continue with that service. Page 6 of 32 TB 11 -7 -01 Cl Grantham - Well I think I can speak for the rest of the Board and myself in saying that the priority for us is providing reliable, good emergency medical service to every person in this Town. And the second priority then is the budget. So I don't think that anyone on the Board disagrees about that. We want to have a very good medical service for the Town. Rick Young - On Bangs proposal, I don't see where they're going to be located? Dan Tier - I sit on the Board of Directors for the Fire Department and the Ambulance. We've been chatting about the sheet here and maybe Mahlon can answer some of the questions so that everybody is on the same sheet of music. We have a couple of questions with regards to Bangs' proposal. One of the questions is with regard to the dollar figures at the bottom, proposals 1 and 2 from Bangs and this figure of $17,750. Atty Perkins - That's a cost of billing, a part of what we have to pay them. D Tier - Cost of them doing the billing? At1:y Perkins - Yes. D 'Pier - The second question is the response times that Bangs has submitted. In many case there is two response times, for example the Varna Community Center, it's got an asterisk and from Bangs Ithaca base 4:10. Supv Varvayanis - What he was proposing, well he had four different models, whether he did the billing and kept the money, or we took the money. In other words, who would take the risk of lots of calls or few calls. The other thing he did was either one ambulance or two ambulances, located on this end of Town. They would not be based in a building. They would be either parked or patrolling as we decided to do. He would have a paramedic and a driver in each vehicle all the time. The reason that several of these have two numbers is that he would prefer to respond let's say to the Varna Community Center «with a separate ambulance, not: one of the ones here from his Ithaca base. But requested, what would the ambulance that you present do. He said it would take seven minutes to get from here to the Varna Community Center, but four to get there form Ithaca. Which is the plan that he would leave this ambulance here and send the one from Ithaca up to the Varna Community Center. That's why there are two numbers in there. D Tier - And I guess that leads into the next question. The RFP that we received to write our proposal from requested a base of location from response, but up at the top it's unspecified. It says central location, unstated, patrolling and I guess that leaves a question in our minds as to the response times. I understand what you're saying about the patrolling issue or standing somewhere. It's difficult to come up with response times when you've got a vehicle patrolling that may be over here or over in Peruville corners or wherever. Supv Varvayanis - For his response times, he was basing it on travel time from the four comers. If we told him to park at: the Town barn here, I assume it would be close enough, or behind the bank or whatever. D Tier - And the last question so everybody is clear on this one. Ellis Hollow and Midhnc Road don't exist, but we have time for them. Atty Perkins - What I intended there was where Midline Road if you keep going finally intersects Ellis Hollow Road. There is an intersection there. It: may be .Ellis Hollow Creek Road, but that's ..... Page 7 of 32 TB 11 -7 -01 ?? - Midline stops at Ringwood. It doesn't go to Ellis Hollow Road or Ellis Hollow Creek [.toad. Atty Perkins - Well, that's my mistake. Rick Young - Have you talked to Timmy about what he is going to do when I know that he's had. to have the ambulance come and back him up when he runs out of ambulances in the City? I know that. we have taken ambulances down to Slope Day and when they have a major incident that he doesn't have enough ambulances to cover. What's going to happen if Timmy has his first ambulance at the Varna Community Center doing a call and we have one up here on Simms Hill Road. You're waiting for one out of the City, or what's going to happen there? Supv Varvayanis - He's planning on buying more ambulances. James Hulslander - This is all about money in this aging community here. My wife got transported from Triphammer Road up to Cayuga Medical Center and it cost $800.00. Insurance pays no where near that. I don't know what they'd charge from here, whether it would be $1200. That would be a detriment to our older folks on a fixed income. 8 Ackroyd - Jim brings up a good point beyond just the dollar figure. [ know that obviously the budget and tax dollars, etc_ are important to you and the residents. I think this goes just beyond the dollar figure. Being community based, that you do an apples to apples comparison for the amount of equipment, service and response times that we provide. I think you also need to look at surrounding communities that we also serve, the Town of Harford and To% n of Virgil. You also need to look at the athletic events that we cover as part of the community based ambulance service. All these things need to be taken into consideration. That it's not just a bottom line dollar figure, but there are a lot of probably unrecognized or unnoticed repercussions to going to an out source. Supv Varvayanis - I'd like to comment. First of all, I don't know why you would think it would be impossible for him to go, if he's got two ambulances fully staffed sitting here, to go to an athletic event. Second of all, treating Virgil and Harford is one of the questions. We have Town paid employees going to provide a service outside of the 'Town which puts us, frankly, it's a shaky legal position to be in. right? B Ackroyd - Currently. But under the new arrangement that wouldn't be an issue, Supv Varvayanis - Right. That's one reason we were looking at the new arrangement. B Ackroyd - I would like to present to the Board and enter into the record the following letters. I won't ask that each of them be read, but 1 will state they are from various community leaders, the Dryden Police Chief, the Athletic Director at the school, Harford fire Company, '[bl%vn of Harford Supervisor, local businesses such as Cotterill Agency, Dryden Agway, Mr. Carpenter who owns Dryden lawn and Recreation, Mr. Bailey from Bailey Insurance, along with 400 plus names on an ad hoc petition that we sent out hying to get community sentiment. Every one of them asks that you share them with the rest of the Town Board members. By the way, all 400 plus names were gathered and signed in less than 48 hours, so there's a groundswell of people saying they appreciate the service we provide and I don't think they want to see a change. 'These letters are for you to read at your leisure. They are, like I said, from various community leaders, etc in support of a community based ambulance service. Supv Varvayanis - Next time, can I ask you to wait until you have the floor? Jim? 40 Jaynes Buckley - Is there anybody representing Bangs here? Pa,,,c 8 of 32 TB 11 -7 -01 ® Supv Varvayanis - No. J Buckley - You may not know. I'm looking at this and it has nothing stated about Virgil, Harford, Harford Mills. Does Bangs anticipate servicing these areas? What is going to happen to these areas? Supv Varvayanis - Both Bangs and TLC have said that they would be willing to service those areas. They are not our contracts and 1 didn't think 1ve should be involved in negotiating a contract one Town to a private company. That's not our roll here. J Buckley - Okay. I guess my point is that we currently do service these areas and these response times, I'm going to argue these response times, but I can tell you that Harford Mills, some of the outreaches of Harford, you're talking twenty minutes to get there from Cortland. I can't say from Ithaca. That's quite a length of time. Cl Grantham - But that's up to Harford and those communities to decide who they want to contract with. Supv Varvayanis - It's also possible that we would decide that since we've got two ambulances, or one, whatever contract we approve stationed here if we go with Bangs, and Bangs wanted to do it, that we would allow him to go to Harford from the four corners area. These are negotiations down the road. It seems a lot of people think we've reached a decision on what we want to do here. We sent out a request for proposals. We got some proposals. Now we have something to discuss about what are the options and what can we do. ® Cl Beck - There's something that needs to be said, Mark. These aren't bids with all the specific instructions you have in a bid. It's just a request for proposals, and I can tell you the Board had the discussion that Dryden's in town, they own three ambulances, they have the building and the people of Dryden have paid for it. They ought to be in a very good position to come in with a businesslike competitive proposal. And that discussion was had at this table. D Abbey - One thing I would like to say is that in our proposal we asked that a meeting be held with us to discuss our numbers, and we didn't hear a thing from anybody ahead of time. Secondly, if you reach a point that you think our proposal is too high, managing and keeping three ambulances in service, are you in favor of wanting us to reduce the number of ambulances to reduce our costs for the community? If so, we want it coming from you, because we wouldn't recommend that. Supv Varvayanis - We haven't talked about it, I don't think that's something we would be in favor of. Cl Beck - Something that might reach that is the discussion has been had if somebody else were awarded this contract, and there's some number of ambulances that Bangs already had, and that point is apparently under discussion as to how many ambulances they actually own, we've not tried to verify that, but what happens if there's three less in service in the community? Do you think that we're going to award somebody a contract if we know that there's all of a sudden going to be three less ambulances available in the community? If yours are not doing the job anymore is Bangs going to buy them? You can be assured that no action will be taken unless they own those ambulances before we award any contract. There's not been a point made here tonight that we haven't discussed, at least some of us. ® ?? Have you got a. target date on the decision for this award, if you will? Pagc 9 of 32 TI3 11-7-01 Supv Varvayanis - I can't stay we have a target date, but obviously the contract with you currently expires December 31. Nobody would want to have one week notice. Especially with Christmas and New Years, we'd like it done as soon as possible. is Anne Grant asked whether the complaints received were because of response time or because of personnel and Supv Varvayanis replied that it was response time. Supv Varvayanis - Again, it's not someone saying this is an outrage. Sometimes you go to second or third activations. If you're heading out to Ellis Hollow it might very well take 20 minutes. This isn't something that I thought was easily fixable. If you have the contract or Bangs or TLC, every now and then someone is going to be unhappy. That's just a fact of life. If you've ever had to wait for an ambulance, you know one minute seems like an hour. There are going to be complaints. It was just a. factual answer to your question. Reba Taylor - Just today I heard another case scenario and it was presented by one of our trustees. Apparently he has heard it somewhere. 'Chat there was a possibility that Dryden Town was going to contract with both the Dryden Ambulance and Bangs, maybe service the west end of the Dryden district with Bangs. So as you can see there are a. lot of strange things flowing out there that people obviously have heard from one source or another. And I wanted to ask you, is that a possibility? Are you considering because you have time problem on the west end of the town.... Supv Varvayanis - That was actually an idea I had over a year ago and I never discussed it with Bangs. I talked to Jack Miller about it and. he didn't think it was really workable for a number of reasons. I suppose %ve could look at it in more detail. .Frankly, it wasn't looked at very far. Ron Flynn - I'm just curious. We sat in on a lot of EMS Committee meetings and you have these ideas but yet you don't bring them forward in the EMS Committee meetings, but yet you go to Jack Miller and ask Jack Miller. What gives? We're supposed to be in an EMS Committee meeting talking about EMS issues, number one, that's where the complaints about the response time should have been brought up, and that's where your idea or brainstorm should have been brought up about Bangs covering the Vanua. area. That's why we have EMS Committee meetings. Nothing like that was ever brought up. Nothing like that was ever discussed. Supv Varvayanis - I told you it was just a thought I had. I talked to one guy and I dropped it before it was.... R Flynn - The only point I'm saying, Mark, is why didn't you address it with us first? Why did you feel a need to go to Jack Miller? Supv Varvayanis - Don't be so defensive. I'm at a meeting with Jack Miller. This is something I had just been hearing complaints about. Believe it or not, he supposedly has some knowledge about EMS service, too. It wasn't I went around you to talk to him. I had some complaints. I happened to run into him at a meeting and I discussed the idea as a way to improve it. I know that you already had discussions back when Jim was here about possibly stationing some kind of fly car down in Varna. It's not that you people never knew that there was a problem getting to that end of town. It's not that you people never thought of a way to deal with it. You seem to think I'm some kind of wild guy who walked in here and said what I've got to do is figure out some way to get around Dryden Ambulance. That's not true. Murray LaLonde - Is Ellis Hollow the whole issue here? We are all Town of Dryden taxpayers living within the'fown of Dryden with our children and our businesses in the Town of Dryden. And they live on the other side of the Town of Dryden. Is that where the complaint Page 10 of 32 T13 I 1 -7-01 is? Is that your largest complaint? Ellis Hollow? Varna's got a team, Slaterville's got a team. ® They pay their taxes as well as I do. Is that the big issue for Dryden Ambulance? Supv Varvayanis - I'm not sure I understand what: your point is. M LaLonde - Your complaints are from Ellis Hollow is what I'm getting; out of my pea. brain here. Do you want: to greater serve Ellis Hollow, the community of Ellis Hollow with the ambulance? And Mt Pleasant? Is that the goal of this whole thing? Cl Grantham - No, the goal is to address issues that were raised by Dryden Ambulance about problems that they were having with paramedics... M LaLonde - With that side of Town. Cl Grantham - No, with finding and retaining paramedics, with the dual supervision problems, with issues like that. That is the driving force behind what happened with this, why we did this. Cl Beck - Right. Cl Grantham - That's what we're concerned about. And if we can't keep and retain paramedics, then we can't serve anyone. So we are trying to address issues that were brought up that were identified as probable causes of paramedics leaving, etc. That's what we're talking about. That's why this is going on. In the process of doing that we should talk about response times to different parts of the town. We should just: do that. Supv Varvayanis - One thing; I should point out: is the comment made everything was going along great until two years ago. There's been a very high turnover of paramedics, since the program started. There is a problem. Let's face that. ?? - It's in every business. Supv Varvayanis - And we're just trying to figure out how to make it run more smoothly. That's something; every business does all the time, too. Sidney Knuppenburg - The problem with the response times, is it with the rescue or is it. with the ambulance? Because I've gone on several ambulance calls, and it's hard for us to beat Dryden there, in Ellis Hollow. Is that an issue? Supv Varvayanis - I heard several comments on ambulance. Reba Taylor - What's the logistics and the legal things on this. Do you go to a public hearing or anything, or does the Board decide who they are going to contract with and that's it? I don't know what your procedures are and I'd like some clarification. It would help a lot of people if they knew exactly what the next stages were. Supv Varvayanis - Well I don't think we plan on sneaking anything through. I know you think we did, and I'm sorry if you don't read the newspapers. That's not our problem. Well, I'd like to bring up one other point. 1 got complaints from some members, "well how come we just found out about this Thursday ? ". What 1 want to know is why was the board of directors working on this proposal for three months and the members didn't know from then? ® D Abbey -They did know about it. It was discussed in every meeting. PaF;e 11 of 32 TB 11-7-01 Supv Varvayanis - Well, I just got complaints that we didn't talk about it. You should • know that I've gotten complaints that you haven't: talked about it. Communication is a problem. B Ackro_yd - The minutes of our meetings are on the web. Supv Varvayanis - So are ours. D Abbey - And I'd also like to say that the complaint that you got, you went around telling him that we were hiding, Abbey and Ackroyd, hiding information, which is not true. Supv Varvayanis - No, I said if what he said was true, then you were lying through your teeth. That's exactly what I said. D Abbey - Which is not the case at all. Supv Varvayanis - Well, then he misinterpreted what you said, which is fine. D Abbey - Maybe you misinterpreted some of these other so -called complaints that you haven't: shared with us. R Taylor - I still haven't had an answer to my question. What is the procedure? Could someone tell me? Atty Perkins - You're having a hearing tonight on the amount that you are going to raise for ambulance services :for the following year. And I just took a quick look at the budget and it seems to me that the amount of the budget is $424,005, which is a combination of two factors. One is the contract, and what we pay in personal services. This is the opportunity for people to complain about how much we spend on ambulance service. Cl Beck - Mahlon, to be perfectly blunt, there's no obligation of the board to hold a public hearing on who we contract with to provide ambulance services. It might be a matter of courtesy or however you want to do so, but legally, that's not required is it? Atty Perkins - I don't: believe so. Supv Varvayanis - No. Cl Grantham - It wasn't even required that we seek a number of proposals because it's professional services, is that not right? I just think that: it's a good process that we're going through because we're learning a lot. D Abbey - Just for the sake of the record, we are volunteers. We do limit our time, we have limited time, we would like as much time as possible to get this set up if January 1 you expect Dryden Ambulance to be running this operation. There's a lot of things that have to be put in place from our end as volunteers to become an employer that we're not prepared to do today, nor can we get set up in a week's time. Cl Grantham - We understand that. Bangs also made that point. D Abbey - Bangs is an employer currently. Supv Varvayanis - Thcy want to buy more equipment and they want to hire more people, and it takes time to ramp up. 0 Pagc 12 of 32 TB 11 -7d1 ] ® Roy Rizzo, 99 Wood Road - I helped get the ambulance started in the Town of Dryden. Before that you had Perkins Funeral Home. Before that along with him came Bangs. They got lost a lot and TLC got lost a lot (it wasn't TLC then). And over the years Dryden Ambulance has saved a life, in the area you're talking about, and it was the Fire Chief of the Varna. Fire Department. They defibrillated. The first one in Tompkins County by a paramedic. I looked at this proposal tonight. I happen to also be over the years, a volunteer with Lansing. I used to work over there. They're not happy with their system. And you want to get a scanner and you want to listen that scanner, because what you people are talking about, you better reconsider. Because they have an ambulance stationed over there. Great, they get a finger nail call. The paramedic's on a. finger nail call, and the guy having a heart attack will have to gait for Bangs. And that's a 20 minute drive. Supv Varvayanis - But you have to understand. What Lansing did is very different. They said we don't want to pay a dime. Bangs, if you have an ambulance free come out here, otherwise we don't give a tinker's toot. That's not what we put out. That's not what we requested. Those aren't the proposals we got. R Rizzo - These times ain't even right. I'll tell you right now, I work right down there by Bangs, and with red lights and siren I still can't drive to where they say they're driving in four minutes. And I don't have the weight. and I don't have the top heaviness of that rig. I've drove ambulances before and I'm cony, Dryden makes very good time and yes, you admit it, you're always going to get people who complain because a minute feels like a half hour. And I think it's been blown out of proportion and I think you ought to give Dryden another chance and think about what you're doing and talk to other people. Because this is the situation, you people want to make the commitment up there, but the taxpayers are the ones that's going to be outraged when they hear %'hat's going on. Because you think about it, you want somebody coming from the City, which you have no idea who they are. A lot of people in this room, I know. And when I see them on the scene, I know they are going to help. I've seen over in Lansing, I've been on calls with Bangs Ambulance. They walls in, they take over, and sometimes they don't have enough help. It's not the situation you people are talking about:. Dryden Ambulance is ten times the service that you're going to get with Bangs, TLC or anybody else. Supv Varvayanis - Can 1 address that? Any volunteer who wants to ride with Bangs in Dryden can still do that. ?? - Do you have that in writing Mark? Supv Varvayanis - Can I ask for an ambulance. ?? - We're a family, we take care of Dryden. D Shigley - Currently to become an EMT or paramedic or any level of EMT, you have to do ride time with a service, whether it's Dryden Ambulance, Inc., Bangs Ambulance, TLC, you can choose where you want: to go, Rural Metro. In order to even do that ride time, you have to get on the waiting list, you have to make time when they say they'll put you on the list, you can only do it certain times of the day or night. You can't do it from midnight to 6:00 a.m. And there's a long list of people waiting just to do ride time to complete their EMT process. So often when people* are trying to do ride time, they can't do it. So to say that anybody in Dryden who wants to can run with Bangs Ambulance I think would be incorrect, misinformation. ® Supv Varvayanis - So what you're saying is you want that: put in the contract if we were to take.... Do you want to ride on the ambulances, if... I mean if because I want to make clear we haven't made any decisions. If we contract with Bangs to park two ambulances by the four Page 13 of 32 "f B 11 -7 -Q l corners, and if we put in the contract you have to allow any Dryden resident who wants to volunteer to ride on the back, do you want that: or not? (no response) No comment then. D Abbey - I want to go back and ask a. question then. If you're that you're interested in having two Bangs Ambulances in this Village, at a cheaper price or you wouldn't be considering it, do you want us to proposal to decrease the number of ambulances sitting in our station, going to support that idea But we want to hear it from you. leaning the discussion because apparently it's come back with a because we are not Supv Varvayanis - First of all, if we went with this proposal, remember, right now ]Dr_yden Ambulance has three ambulances... Well, actually, I think you've got two, is the third one in there? Okay, so you have two. That's a point. ?? Unless we cancel the order. Supv Varvayanis - Okay, you've got two. He's saying he'll have two. If one of them breaks down, he sends another one from Ithaca. So it's not three to two. He's going to have his fully staffed all the time. He has crew sitting in both of these hvo ambulances which you don't. These two ambulances will be covering this end of this Town. Your three, when you get three, cover, according to your web site, 200 square miles. So when you talk about: comparing apples, let's do that. Two ambulances, fully staffed, at a minimum not at a maximum, sitting covering 50 square miles or so, as opposed to three, one may break down, one may be sold while we're waiting for another one. You only have one crew. Sometimes we don't have drivers for that one crew. I mean I'm not complaining tons about the services, but let's compare apples to apples, that's what you want to do. R Rizzo - Right now Bangs only has five ambulances. They have a wheelchair car and the City wants so many ambulances, Lansing gets one ambulance, and now Dryden's going to get two ambulances. Yeah, Timmy's going to go out and buy more ambulances, but Timmy rotates his ambulances and they get a lot of miles on them, and they break down a lot. Now, how many times is Dryden going to be with one ambulance or no ambulances, because they're the furthest. I know how this goes. I've worked on it, and Dryden knows how this goes. You have a brand new ambulance that can be broke down. It don't mean nothing. I can tell you right now, very seldom does Dryden have a problem. Yes, the second crew takes a little longer because people are coming a little bit further. It's the same as the rescue squad. If you go a little bit further, it takes a little bit longer, but they handle it. I really think that when people sit. down and look at the big picture that there's really no consideration here. Like I said, these people, and they're doing a. service for our community, and it's us, it's our taxes. And when I mentioned this to my wife, which used to run on Dryden too as an EMT and EMT2 at times, she just couldn't believe it. And I don't think this should get out to the taxpayers because I think they're going to be real upset. It's okay to look and check things out, but it's not fair, It's not apples to apples. Jet? Kirkland - You were stating here that the two ambulances from Bangs, and the fact that we only have two right now, but the third one will be delivered shortly. That would be reducing the amount of ambulances in this community. Would that be right if you went with the Bangs proposal? Supv Varvayanis - No, it: would not. Let me try to get back to what I said. Depending on what we do, whether it's one ambulance, two ambulances, maybe we decide it's not enough, we ask for five. What he's proposing is to put that number of ambulances sitting at the four corners. Those ambulances would not respond to calls on the other end of town. Those ambulances would not respond to Harford. Those ambulances would not respond to Virgil. You're talking about taking three ambulances sometimes, in a 200 square mile area compared to a guaranteed minimum. You say his guarantee's not good, and I hear that, but we'll let him Page 14 of 32 TB 11 -7-01 argue that if he wants to. A guaranteed minimum of two covering roughly 50 square miles. That is not reducing the number of ambulances in the community. Bill Ackroyd - I think you're hearing a lot of emotion, and these people are very proud of what they've provided for the last 25 years. Trying to be rational about this, and objective, I'm concerned about one thing, and it appears if my perception is right, that you are extremely articulate, very well versed and very supportive of the Bangs proposal. And if what Deb is saying is true, that we are out here to look at this in an objective manner, I guess I'm a little concerned by your very, very vocal support of the Bangs proposal, almost to the point of being defensive about it. Would you care to explain your relationship with Bangs Ambulance? Is there any? Supv Varvayanis - Well, I have heard the rumor that I wanted to give a contract to Tim Bangs because he's a buddy of mine. I can say I have not met the man yet, we have talked on the phone three titres. Each time was questions about the proposal. B Ackroyd - It's just my perception. When the emotion starts to flow and we start to represent what we do and how we're proud of what we do and why we think it should stay, you're very quick to respond with facts, figures and support for the Bangs proposal. Supv Varvayanis - That's true because my job is the financial manager of this Town. True the Town has to consider the emotional side, but I'm the fiscal officer. My job is to control the dollars. And if the Board around me says we think these dollars, no matter how many, should go to support Dryden Ambulance, fine. B Ackroyd - Our job is to save lives. ® Supv Varvayanis - That, I believe, is Tim Bangs job too. B Ackroyd - I have a quick question. I have my 2001 tax bill here, and it looks like we paid about 7.777 cents per thousand of assessed valuation for ambulance service. So if the average person had $100,000 home in the Town of Dryden, they paid $7.77 a year to have the ambulance service. Is that correct? Supv Varvayanis - In 2001. It sure went up since then. That is true, but that is no longer an accurate number. B Ackroyd - If I was a $100,000 homeowner paying $7.77 a year to have ambulance services, it's a no- brainer to me. Supv Varvayanis - Okay, but again, the question, and this is where people seem to get upset, you included, is it just Ellis Hollow. You notice most: people, we have some from Varna and other areas, are from this end of Town. I have to, and the Board has to, consider every resident in the ,town. If we have a proposal that says I can do in four minutes what you claim will take twelve minutes or ten or whatever, it may be wrong, and that's what we're here tonight to find out. But you have to understand, if someone comes to me and says I can get a better crew faster over there than those guys can, cheaper, and I ignore it, I should be shot. B Ackroyd - My only question was, if you even doubled that, quadruple it, six times, I'll pay $46.00 ayear on a $100,000 home to have ambulance service. I think it's affordable... Supv Varvayanis - And none of us are saying that the can't afford it. What we're here tonight to do is discuss which is the best: service possible and, after we get to that, consider the isdollars. The best service is the first issue. Pabe 15 of 32 TB 11 -7 -U 1 Anne Grant - You said that if Bangs were awarded the contract they would add more ambulances. Is that reflected in their proposal? is Supv Varvayanis - Well, his proposal price is over $400,000. A Grant - is that based on what: equipment and personnel he has now, or will it be different if he does... Supv Varvayanis - I assume he's making a profit now, because it's a for profit company. He's not going to take whatever he's making now and put an additional $400,000 into his pocket. Boy, I'd buy an ambulance and go into that business myself if that were the case. Cl 13eck - To answer your question, there is nothing in his proposal that says 1 will buy three more ambulances to serve the Town of Dryden. No, to answer your question. 'D Abbey - Just .so the information doesn't get misconstrued in the paper, I want it on the record that our response time in our proposal was done from our fire station in a personal vehicle, driving the legal speed limit: to all location. Not in an emergency situation. So when you are considering response times, please bear that in mind. 17 Shigley - Again, when comparing these proposals, I know that: Dryden Ambulance, Inc. turns out bills and the paramedics do the billing for the Town. And I know approximately what those bills are. And as Jim Hulslander mentioned, a bill from Bangs Ambulance, and I have received one myself and they are quite a bit higher than the bills that are sent out currently for Town billing. Is there anything in the proposal fimom Bangs that's going to limit the amount that they can bill for the service that's going to be provided if they were chosen as the provider? AdShk Supv Varvayanis - They do have their schedule of charges in here. ?? Do they accept medicaid and medicare? Supv Varvayanis - They have to by law* don't they? D Shigley - How does that schedule compare to Dryden's billing now? Jim Hulslander said, I don't, know what that: schedule says, but he was billed $800.00 and I know that Dryden Ambulance, Inc doesn't send out a bill that says $800.00. 1 think that's a big concern of the members of the community, not just what they pay on their ambulance tax, but also when that ambulance comes what their bill is going to be after the insurance company pays whatever they pav, and what's going to be left: as their responsibility. So it's not just the fiscal dollars of the Town, but the fiscal dollars of the community members as well. Supv Varvayanis - That's a legitimate concern. Ron Flynn - Let's take that one step further. Right now the bills that: individuals receive, if they are not paid, they don't go to collection. If Nfr Bangs bills, and they don't pay, they go to collection. When this ambulance program billing was set up, it w-as set up to cover the cost of the salaries of the paramedics and not to let it go to collection so that we don't have under privileged individuals going without food because they have to pay the bill. J Buckley - I am the individual that does the billing on a daily basis, myself and Ken, and I can say that it's been at: least three months since we've had to pull from an out of the area ambulance. Since we've been allowed to get to full staff we've been able to take care of this community fairly Drell. Tonight can be considered an exception given this meeting, but right now there is a paramedic sitting at the station, two on calls and two sitting right here. Page 16 of32 TB 11 -7-01 We certainly have drivers for every one of them. For the most part I can say at any given time in the recent history we have been able to get at least two ambulances out without very much delay at all. Also, I was just asked to leave here and take care of a call, and the young lady who was not breathing too well has asked me to speak in her behalf. Her quote was "Get down there and do what you can. I hate Bangs Ambulance. Don't let them come here." Those are not my words. She says they are mean, they are sarcastic and they are rude. This is something that this lady has asked me to convey. If I may, the question of the billing, I believe Jim's was $487 or $489 in comparison to the $800 he was sent. So just a couple clarifications. Cl Grantham - Well just so you know the schedule of fees in Bangs' proposal ranges from non - emergency for $275 up to emergency ALS2 at $525 and they charge $35 for oxygen and $7.50 mileage loaded. R Rizzo - You can buy a whole bottle of oxygen for $35.00. J Buckley - Can I make clear our billing? Billing is $300 for an ALS trip, ELS trip is $350 with the $7.50 a mile, and we do not charge for the oxygen or ALS supplies. R Taylor - Does Bangs charge whether they transport or not, and does Dryden charge whether they transport or not. ?? Bangs does. Cl Grantham - They have a medical assist fee. ?? If Bangs takes a set of vitals, you get a bill from Bangs. Cl Grantham - And that's for basic life support, medical assist is $1&3 and advanced life support: is $240. That's where there's no transport. R Rizzo - Does the Board look at the calls that Dryden Ambulance goes on? Does the Board look at how many calls it's a citizen/ taxpayer that's taken care of, they re happy. And Board, in doing this, I want you to see Ithaca's, Bang's calls out of the City and look at them. Because I want to see how many calls, just like this gentlemen said. I•Iow many $240 calls do you take out of the City, because for most people that I talk to out of the City, it's a $500 call. So I think while you're looking at this, you've got to look on the twxTayer's side too. Like this gentlemen just said, it's very cheap what you charge in taxes. i have no complaint about it, and I have no complaint if it goes up. My complaint is if you're going to hire Bangs, what's going to happen next year. Because once Dryden is eliminated, Bangs can charge you anything they want. You have control right now. What are you going to have in a. couple of years? Supv Varvayanis - Several other commercial services in the area. Cl Beck - Mark, I've a question. Who can clarify what E91 l nearest available means? When someone calls in an emergency and it goes to 911 it could well be if it's in Varna it would be Bangs anyway, even though it's in the Dryden area. I don't know how that really works. Could somebody tell me? K Knickerbocker - l used to work for TLC. I was a dispatcher and paramedic. We used what they call system status management. What they do is they take ayears worth of calls and analyse them and see where the majority of the calls come from and place the ambulances ® appropriately. Right now they have one on the east side and one on the west side. The closest ambulance theory is basically that. Your system status, you're out in the field, you're not sitting in the building somewhere. As a dispatcher if I got a call for a broken arm I'd send the Page 17 of 32 TB 11 -7 -01 closest ambulance. Now if a call came in for a full arrest with that call for a broken arm, the full arrest takes priority and the broken arm has got to wait %while the ambulance goes to the full arrest. 0 Cl Beck - The rest of the question was what if it goes into 911 in Ithaca and the nearest available is one of Bang's and it's in Dryden Ambulance's territory. K Knickerbocker - We used to take calls like that in Cincinnatus, too. We'd get calls for Cincinnatus, and it got to the point where we had a contract because they weren't able to get out: paramedics, so any call that sounded like it required ALS support, TLC would immediately send a rig on the first activation., along with Cincinnatus. Cl Beck - Mould that require some kind of agreement between the two municipalities. K Knickerbocker - They had a contract between the Town of Cincinnatus and .... Cl Beck - My other question there is something called a. certificate of need that's issued to an ambulance district. My understanding is that once that is lost, if Dryden Ambulance doesn't get a contract, that certificate of need is issued to somebody else, and it may never come back to the area again. Somebody has a right to keep that until they decide to give it: up. So you can bet that I've considered that. Now, if that information is not correct, I'd like to hear t:he difference in opinion. What is a certificate of need? Is it Health Department issued, or who issues it? And how is it related to the community? R Rizzo - That's the problem Lansing has right now. B Ackroyd - A certificate of need is granted by the health department based on a documentation of this community's need, based on the number of calls, number of people, etc. Dryden Ambulance has a certificate of need that says it's for the Town of Dryden, including the Villages of Freeville and Dryden. CI Beck - Does it include parts of Harford and Virgil? B Ackroyd - Yes, it does. Cl Beck - That gives authority of some sort to operate in those areas, even though it is outside the town. B Ackroyd - The health department has recognized that the people that live in those communities have a need for ambulance service, and they've granted that certificate to operate there to Dryden Ambulance. Cl T Hatfield - State Health Department or County Health Department? B Ackroyd - New York State Department of Health. R Flyrin - Just a comment. Dryden Ambulance would have to forfeit that Certificate of Need, we would have to be willing to give that up. Supv Varvayanis - You would have to be willing to give it up? You don't have... R Flynn - We'd have to forfeit.. Supv Varvayanis - You have to forfeit or you have to be willing? Which is it? Is it mandatory or not? 0 Page IS of 32 TB I t -7 -01 ® R Flynn - Dryden Ambulance, Inc. has to give up that Certificate of Need. We would have to state that we want to give that up. That's all there is to it. Cl C Hatfield - Maybe somebody could clear this up for me. Bangs says his certificate covers all of Tompkins County, B Ackroyd - That's correct, and I don't know the history behind that. But you're right, Bangs Ambulance's Certificate of Need does say Tompkins County, which would include the Town of .Dryden. Now how that was issued back whenever his certificate was issued by the State Health Department and why, I don't know. Cl C Hatfield - In other words, Dryden's was issued after theirs was issued. So that would mean that you guys were precedent. B Ackroyd - I don't know. I've seen the certificate in their proposal, and it does say Tompkins County, R Rizzo - t think if you go back when Jeff Bangs, Tim Bangs father, had only one ambulance, you'll find out that was the only thing we had around here, and you'll find out after that it was Trumansburg, Groton, Dryden, and they've been holding the County. I'll tell you right now, you want to get that scanner out when there's a disaster downtown, a big fire, a gas leak or something, Timmy don't have any ambulances, they've got somebody else in the County covering for them. R Taylor - If you did go with Bangs, is it. guaranteed that their ambulances are here 24- 7, or if they get a disaster downtown will they yank those ambulances and Dryden is left with no coverage for however long it might take, or a disaster at the airport? R Rizzo - They'll be going. R Taylor - I don't know. Is that part of the proposal? Supv Varvayanis - The proposal, which is not a contract so it's not guaranteed, is that they would be here. And if one of these breaks, he'll send another one here. There will be two here. That's the proposal. ?? - That doesn't answer the question. Cl Beck - We don't have an answer for the question. A disaster or anything could happen, but the proposal says 24 -7, two ambulances. And that's the only answer we can give you. R Young - You're saying they are going to have two ambulances here 24 -7, I hope he's buying a lot of them. I'm telling you on Slope Day we even send an ambulance down to help them out. And there's been plenty of times we've had to back him up, along with TLC. I'm just telling you right now, if you pull Dryden out of here you are really going to affect the whole way not just the Town of Dryden, but the whole emergency services around here, the way they operate. We help Groton out, we help TLC, we help Bangs. Tonight we helped Berkshire. It's kind of everybody washes each other's hands around here and if you pull Dryden out of here and you'll see a lot of problems. B Ackroyd - I think the whole fire and ems society, if you will, is a living, breathing is proud animal, and I tell you, if you tear the heart out of it, the repercussions will be long -felt in this community for many years to come. That's the emotion. Page 19 of 32 TI3 11 -7-0 1 Supv Varvayanis - Not wanting to reduce the importance of what you've said, but I've asked you already to wait until you have the floor. B Ackro-yd - My apologies. Joyce Gerbasi - Back to the more practical side of this and what Deb has been bringing up, if I'm understanding correctly and it's the first time I've really gotten into the details of this, Dryden Ambulance, Inc. is going to be the actual employer of the paramedics. J Gerbasi - So they will then be responsible for meeting payroll in a tamely fashion, and benefits. Would they still be through the State system, the benefits. S Ackroyd - No. J Gerbasi - So that's wi entire change in the pension. B Ackroyd - We will be providing payroll, we will be providing benefits, workman's compensation, disability, a retirement plan, 401k, we will be providing that for the paid employees. Supv Varvayanis - How about health insurance? J Gerbasi - Where is this coming from? Is this taxpayer money that we are paying in whatever percentage it is per thousand? Cl Grantham - It's taxpayer money. J Gerbasi - Number two, there has been apparently a lot of conflict between having supervision both by the volunteers where the ambulances are housed and by the employers. Who is setting the standards that have to be met? Supv Varvayanis - Well, that's one of the arguments ure've been having. Cl Grantham - Yes, because there are medical standards that they have to meet, and then there is administrative standards and that's a big source of the conflict. 8 Ackroyd - That conflict issue will be resolved under the proposal. Cl Grantham - Right. J Gerbasi - Let me finish. You're saying you people are-not ' going to be arguing about the standards anymore. What I'm asking is who is actually going to set what the agreed upon standards are? Supv Varvayanis - Well if they are the employer, how in the world could we set standards for their employees? J Gerbasi - Cl Grantham - Our idea is the town will no longer employ paramedics and xLrhoever we sign a contract with. .. yeah. before, when the Town was the employer... J Gerbasi - So they will then be responsible for meeting payroll in a tamely fashion, and benefits. Would they still be through the State system, the benefits. S Ackroyd - No. J Gerbasi - So that's wi entire change in the pension. B Ackroyd - We will be providing payroll, we will be providing benefits, workman's compensation, disability, a retirement plan, 401k, we will be providing that for the paid employees. Supv Varvayanis - How about health insurance? J Gerbasi - Where is this coming from? Is this taxpayer money that we are paying in whatever percentage it is per thousand? Cl Grantham - It's taxpayer money. J Gerbasi - Number two, there has been apparently a lot of conflict between having supervision both by the volunteers where the ambulances are housed and by the employers. Who is setting the standards that have to be met? Supv Varvayanis - Well, that's one of the arguments ure've been having. Cl Grantham - Yes, because there are medical standards that they have to meet, and then there is administrative standards and that's a big source of the conflict. 8 Ackroyd - That conflict issue will be resolved under the proposal. Cl Grantham - Right. J Gerbasi - Let me finish. You're saying you people are-not ' going to be arguing about the standards anymore. What I'm asking is who is actually going to set what the agreed upon standards are? Supv Varvayanis - Well if they are the employer, how in the world could we set standards for their employees? J Gerbasi - Because uve're paying for the taxpayers, and if it is not felt that: the standards being set are meeting what they were before, when the Town was the employer... Page 20 of 32 T13 11 -7411 Cl Beck - Joyce, our concern is that they're licensed paramedics and EMTs and they've met those medical standards, and beyond that it's not our problem what the salary is or how to hire and fire, or what their performance. That's one of the major reasons this Board has got these proposals. We're sick and tired of babysitting the system. CI Grantham - When you have a contract, then that contract requires that the contractor meet specifications in it, this level of service. J Gerbasi - It will be a specific written contract. Cl Grantham - Yes. We are not going to set in that contract the rates of pay for the employees and all of that. It's just this is a service that the provider will to forfeit give us. J Kirkland - You talked about the certificate of need. Currently there's only two services that currently provide by a certificate of need in this area, in the Town of Dryden, Dryden Ambulance and Bangs Ambulance. If you go with Bangs Ambulance does that mean that: there's only one ambulance service that could provide based on a certificate of need, and that you would not have the ability to choose any other ambulance service in this community at that point? Cl Beck - We don't know. J Kirkland - If it's a requirement that: we have to give up or we have to forfeit the certificate, is it our choice to forfeit it or is it our choice to forfeit the certificate or not? R Flynn - We would do it willingly or forcefully. If we fail to roll for thirty days at the end of thirty days we automatically forfeit it. J Kirkland - Okay, so in other words for you to et another ambulance service in here Y Y g other than Bangs because Dryden would be no longer available, then they would have to fail to give service to the community for thirty days before you would be able to get another service in here? Supv Varvayanis - I'm not sure how one gets a certificate of need. J Kirkland - That's my question to the board. Is this something that should be considered also? Cl Grantham - It's on my list now. Chris Michaels - How many volunteers do we have with the Dryden Ambulance now? We've talked about paid staff: D Abbey - It's probably 120 or so. They're not all running with the ambulance service. C Michaels - 120 that could participate? I guess I'm wondering what is your volunteer staffing on a weekly basis. How many volunteers do you have working? 17 Abbey - There isn't an ambulance call that we take that there isn't a volunteer on the ambulance. R Young - Last year there was 011 of them. Page 21 of 32 i TI3 11 -7 -01 B Ackroyd - And the volunteers on the ambulance don't come just from Dryden Fire Department or Dryden Ambulance. They also come from Freeville, Varna, Etna, McLean and so forth. 0 J Kirland - We talked about the difference in fee schedules, what Dryden Ambulance bills and what Bangs Ambulance currently bills. If 1 calculated it correctly in my head, it's $205 difference for an ALS call where somebody provided oxygen. Mileage is going to be pretty much t:he same if they are responding from the four corners. If we went on nine hundred and some calls last year, wouldn't that be about $180,000. B Ackroyd - We don't transport all of them. J Kirkland - Yes, but that doesn't matter because even if Bangs Ambulance shows up, they bill them. Supv Varvayanis - Not if it's advanced life support. J Kirkland - If it's a paramedic based ambulance, that's advanced life support isn't it:? Cl Grantham - No. They have a medical assist fee that's much lower. ?? It's still more than we charge. Cl Grantham - I understand that. J Kirkland - Okay, well it's still a. significant savings. Take it in half and go to $90,000. That's still $90,000 even if we only transport half the time that the community is going to have to now bear. If we are financially looking out for the community, then wouldn't keeping a system that's going to actually cost them less at the end be beneficial? 0 Supv Vaxvayan.is - One of the proposals that Bangs put out %yas that we pay them a flat fee and we take everything that he bills. We could do the same system that we do with Dryden Ambulance, same rate structure if we wanted to. We won't take payment if they can't do it. We could work that out with Bangs also if we felt like going that way. Remember, he put out four proposals, not just one. R Young - Didn't the proposals state where they were going to be based? Isn't that what . the proposal said? Getting back to the proposal, that's what the proposal said, and his proposal in no way, shape or form say I'm based at the four corners of Dryden. B Ackroyd - Line b, qualifications, response must state location of base of operations. R Young - So it goes right back to what's going on in Lansing right: now. Yes, you're saying Lansing didn't really rare, but I don't think that anybody in Lansing is any different than anybody sitting here. It's not that they didn't care, they didn't realize what they were getting. Sure, we're trying to look out a little bit better for what we're getting, but I think you're looking at the same thing. If he's got something going on in Ithaca, I'll guarantee you, that's where he's from, that's where he's going, that's where the ambulances are going to go. I'll tell you right now, three weeks ago we had a chiefs and captains meeting and we had an ambulance call at Willowbrook Manor. Our crew was there for about an hour and a half helping the woman back into bed, helping her up, talked with her, sat with her. She didn't get charged a dime. The second rig went out on a call with a paramedic. 1':verybody was happy, and I'll tell you right now, if Bangs had gone to help that woman out, she'd have gotten bill for an assist, like you're saying, of $180 or whatever. Bangs is not Page 22 of 32 TI3 11 -7 -01 going to provide that kind of service because they don't care about the people out here. The people that Bangs has are young people looking for the quick buck, the $2000 sign on bonus. Earlier you said how we were losing paramedics. We were losing paramedics but we were trying to deal with it at the same time. It was because our pay was so much lower than everybody else's. Now we're saying ours is higher. We haven't lost anybody in a while because we've raised our pay. So the problems that we had are not here anymore. That all was pretty well settled. I don't think that I've called you in quite a few months over any problems. R Rizzo - There are several issues that have been brought up here and I'd like to make note that Dryden has a paramedic on their staff that used to work for Bangs and I believe he worked there about ten years. Him and I have conversed over a lot of things that go on, but I can tell you now as a business man, I have no problems with Jeff Bangs, Tim Bangs or any of the Bangs. I know them fairly well and I've dealt with them over the years. The problem is that they are business people, just like anybody else that runs a business. They are not going to lose $1,000 having two ambulances sitting here burning up fuel when there's a big call in Ithaca That's $500 an ambulance or better. They're going. If you can get someone from Groton to come over here, how often are they going to come over. if you can get somebody from TLC, how often are they going to send somebody over. Because those calls are free, they can't charge unless they go out on another call. when they get here. They're going to get tired of that. Supv Varvayanis - You have to understand. This is a proposal. If we, go with Bangs, we will have a contract. If in the contract we say you will have two ambulances here and he pulls one out, he violated the contract and he forfeits $400,000. R Young - Then what are you going to do with the $4001000? Supv Varvayanis - My point is that he's saying he's gong to pull an ambulance out for $500. If that violates a contract, he's not going to do that. R Young - What if he does? And we give up our certificate of need, who are you going to get in here next, because it takes probably four or five months to get a certificate of need. That's the only thing that saves Timmy Bangs at this point right now. 'That's why nobody else bid on it, because they know they cannot get a certificate of need that quick. Supv Varvayanis - Okay, then he knows that in four or five months if he screws up with the Town of Dryden, he loses the contract thereafter. R Young - But: where are we going to be if you lose Bangs and Dryden's not there? Are you going to go four or five months without: ambulance service? Supv Varvayanis - What you're saying is if the guy pulls one ambulance out once because there's an emergency, the whole world goes to hell in a handbasket for the newt five months? I don't understand. R Young - I'm just trying to follow up with what you said. You said that he loses the contract if he does do that. Who is going to get the contract after that? Are you going to have no ambulance service in Dryden for the next four or five months? Supv Varvayanis - No, no, we're not going to say there was an emergency. We only had one ambulance available, that's it, take your ambulance out and go home. If he does something like this consistently we will bid it out again. We'll bid it out again anyway. toR Young - That's what I'm saying. Who are you going to bid it out: to? Page 23 of 32 01 "13 11 -7 -01 D Abbey - Mark, I think you'll have a hard time biddng it out. when nobody can get a certificate of need_ 0 Supv Varvayanis - You just said you could get; it in four or five months. R Young - That's what I'm saying, what are you going to do for four or five months? CI Grantham - That is something that's on our list to figure out, if we can go with anyone else or not, and how the certificate of need works. It's an important point you've raised and we have to consider it. Absolutely. Thank you. Supv Varvayanis - I think it's time the board had a discussion. We'll close the hearing. J Buckley - If I may, we're not here to bash Dryden or Bangs or any other service. We're all pretty much out there for the same purpose. I have heard negative things and good things about every service in the area_ I don't think that I can say as a paramedic that I am better than a. Bangs paramedic or am any different than a Bangs paramedic. I think the system is different for me than it is for Bangs. I think this system allows me to spend 20 minutes with this young lady if she falls and needs some assistance where the system doesn't allow that for Bangs because of how their system is set up. Yes, there are going to be some financial increases and payment from the people in this community that I believe would pretty much even the slate. You're looking at figures there, but what are the end figures after these people pay the amounts that are asked of the different services. What I am here to do right now is simply say I have been in this com.muruty on and off since I was born. It does me very good to be able to come into this community and help again. At this point, I would ask where are we going, when are we going to know, what. am I going to tell the employees? Am I asking them to hold on until January first and walk off January second? Am I going to have the lu.mmy of giving these people some notice of what is going to be taking place? Are these people just going to be told they can't be EMTs anymore, they cart t: be paramedics anymore in this community? I think that would be an injustice and I think overall we are comparing apples to apples. And I think when we really look at the final costs, I think we are looking at about damn near the same. My only question in this is, what do I tell my people, my employees? When are we going to know what: we need to do? Supv Varvayanis - I think we already stated our goal is to come to a decision as soon as possible. I can't guarantee we'll do it tonight and I can't guarantee ure'll do it at our next meeting, but if we don't: well have a special meeting. I'm sure it will be in November, mid - November. Not after that. J Kirkland - I have another question. calking about; the level of service that's provided in the community. I know a lot of neighbors in this room spend a large amount of time in this community. We also spend a lot: time giving a. lot of service. If we are not able to practice these services (there are 25 -30 people here), you're going to have 4 ambulance employees from Bangs in this area. You have this many people in this community that make their service serving this community on. the ambulance, fire service and a lot of other very important: services to this community. Now is that. going to continue? Supv Varvayanis - I think we tried to close the Bearing. Now we'll have our discussion (9:00 p.m.) Maybe I should invite our two fixture board members to participate since you will be stuck with whatever contract we decide on. Cl T Hatfield - I'd like to kick off on a couple of points. Bill, you gave a nice rendition of the beginning, with Mahlon. 1 was at those early meetings as well. Of the board as it is currently constituted I think I was the only one that was there at those very early meetings when we dealt with this issue of needing to go to a paid paramedic force. I recall a fair amount Page 24 of 32 TB 11 -7 -01 of discussion at that time about who would be the employer, whether it should Dryden Ambulance, Inc or the Town and there was a lot of give and take on that issue. We determined in a effort of bi partisan work, or whatever the right term is, working on it together, that we would try to go down the road this way, with the 'Town being the employer. We already had the payroll mechanism in place, the insurances and all the other things that go along with being an employer. That system worked pretty well for a while. There was a transition period and at the time I think there was concern on Dryden Ambulane, Inc's part of mixing volunteers and paid. There was some members of the department very concerned about whether this would work, how it would work, could we get along, would there be friction. Turned out there %vas none of that. We've come down that road a little further and it turns out we've had some issues in germs of managment and turnover. We're at a point now where it is pretty obvious to the board that there needs to be consolidation of that managment. I think that's a fair statement. Mark made that statement, Deb reinforced that statement and we've been through a lot of public meetings last year. .Jim, you've been here, and I'm not sure what the appropriate terms is, but: you were here representing that you and those that work with you were very frustrated, that you weren't happy with the management structure. So this Board first of all is making an attempt to correct that. I think it's time for that to be corrected and I think it's time for this to come over one roof. I think that your proposal request by the way is a very well though -out approach to handling the process of being an employer and dealing with all the costs and all the extra duties that this will entail for your board and for your department. I'd be less than honest if I didn't say I've heard from some of the folks in this room that: are very concerned about that. But, I've also heard from your board members and it's very clear that you guys are solidly behind wanting to go in this direction and I think that the turnout that you have here tonight indicates you really do have some solidarity here within your department, and that it's very important to you to keep Dryden Ambulance, Inc in the driver's seat so to speak. I just wanted is to start the discussion witih that little extra add on to the history as 1 see it, and where it came from and where we are tonight. I think it's very important for all of you to understand that this board did not do it's job under a bushel basket. I don't think we could have gone forward to this point without asking in public for proposals. That's really all that's been done here. And we had literally t%vo folks respond. One we certainly hoped would respond, that would be Dryden Ambulance, Inc., and we had no idea whether anyone else would. We had no idea that we would get another respondent: that would provide four proposals. Having received five proposals 1 think we have a, duty here to sort them out, compare them, listen to every single argument that was made here tonight, all of which was certainly valid and important input, and then measure those things and make a decision. I understand what you are saying about the time frame. I would hope that we might be able to find concensus tonight and make a decision. If not tonight, next: Wednesday we'll meet again. I think that's important, and I'll give the floor to someone else. Supv Varvayanis - I think we heard a lot of questions that maybe we can resolve tonight, such as how long does it take to get a certificate of need and what's involved. It might: be wise to wait a week. There are still some factual questions. I don't know, Mahlon, do you have any flags raised from what you heard tonight, anything you'd like to look up before you give us advice? Atty Perkins - I don't know the timing on the certificate of need, but I can't believe that if you haven't got an ambulance service and you've got a willing provider that there isn't some measure that you can get a temporary certificate for that. There must be some kind of accommodations to cover situations like that. I can check on that if you want me to. toCl Grantham - I think it would be a good idea to answer those questions. Page 25 of 32 TB I 1 -7 -U 1 D Abbey - Isn't the certificate really a moot point for tonight because Bangs Ambulance and Dryden Ambulance both have it for Tompkins County? Cl Grantham - Aren't we having a board discussion? Supv Varvayanis - But you made a point that if you give yours out, are we stuck with Bangs for an eternity. That's a legitimate point. If we don't consider that, again, I should be shot. Cl Grantham - And I have a list: of a half a dozen points that were made tonight. One of them is the fees to the clients being much higher from Bangs, Dryden volunteers being able to ride on a Bangs ambulance, we need to talk to Lansing and maybe other areas about Bangs service, the certificate of need, questions about Bangs' ablity to meet all their obligations, and the service to Harford Mills, I-Iarlord and those areas that I think we ought to think about as well. Can someone explain to me how the service to the areas outside of town works, how that's paid for, and who does those calls and so on. B Ackro_yd - They have a contract with Dryden Ambulance, Inc. We contract: for two years at time with the Town of Hanford, a ambulance, we contract for a portion of the Town of Virgil for two years, a ambulance. Cl Grantham - But it's the Dryden employee paramedics who are providing that service on the ambulances. B Ackroyd - Sometimes. Cl Grantham - Sometimes, but other times who? 0 B Ackroyd - If the Dryden paid paramedic is at the Tompkins hospital on the first call, the second ambulance that goes to Harford may be all volunteers. Cl Grantham - Okay. But any of the paid people who go are the Dryden employees, and so how do you reconcile the finances? If we are paying Jim and Jim is responding to a call in Harford and you have a separate contract with Harford, so Harford is paying you also for that call, does something come back to the Town of Dryden? ?? Through the billing. Cl Grantham - from the Harford contract. Supv Varvayanis - That's one of the problems we're trying to rectify with having them hire the paramedics. Cl Grantham - Okay, right. Cl T Hatfield - And those costs are also covered because there is going to be a bill generated and that money comes to the Town of Dryden. So that was how we dealth with that issue at the beginning of the process, by generating the bill that generated income back to the Town of Dryden. Supv Varvayanis - But that's not really solving the problem because... Cl T Hatfield - Well you've still got the issue of being... Yeah, alright. Supv Varvayanis Well there are more issues, but you get into legal mud. i'a,c26 of 32 T8 11 -7-01 is Cl T Hatfield - We're looking into solving that problem anyway so there's no point in looking backward. Cl Grantham - Okay. Cl Beck - I looked at the financial side of two proposals in particular where there were two ambulances here 24 -7, fully aware that we didn't know what was going to happen with the total supply of ambulances in the County, where those two were going to come from, whether they would be taken from what they have now, and the ones in Dryden would be retired or whatever. But the net cost to the Town of Dryden for them providing two ambulances is $47,000. That is $12,000 more than Dryden's proposal to provide three ambulances in the Village 24 -7. To me that's not even a thing to consider. We've got a group of people here and all these points have been stated tonight. There are people here that have built this thing over years of time. We've got a dedicated community. If we can provide three ambulances for $12,000 more, of our own that we already own and the people of this community here have paid for, then that's not even a consideration. So 1 say that we do that., there's no problem at all. The other proposal was if Bangs does the billing and keeps the money. In them coming up with their proposal they put in at least $30,000 to $40,000 more collections than the Town of Dryden than we projected. So that money is going to come out of our people one way or another by collection agencies. So if you factor that figure in there, then you ve got a difference of maybe $15,000 between Dryden's proposal an Bangs proposal. Again, not: a significant difference for the service. I've made up my mind. That's all I needed to know. There's a 6, 7 and 8. Who they will be here they're not here, whether they're € I don't even care any further. question about the number of ambulances Bangs actually has. I've heard 5, knows? And we don't know what's going to happen. They're telling us that 24 -7. Well, they would violate the contract if that's what the contract says if But we don't know if that means there's going to be two less in Ithaca or ;oing to buy two new ambulances to supply Dryden. Those are unknowns and to pursue that at this point. I don't think that's something that I need to take Cl C Hatfield - Ron, just on this sheet Mahlon passed out between their two and Dryden's three there's only $12,000 difference. C1 Beck - So that's why I'm saying. Atty Perkins - Actually the true differences were a little more than that because we have to add to the cost of the contract with Dryden Ambulance the premium that the Town is required by law to pay for the volunteer ambulance workers benefit law insurance, which is about $8,500. Cl Beck - Where does that show up? Atty Perkins - It doesn't show up there, but it would be a true expense to the Town. Cl Beck - So it's not in the contract, not considered. Atty Perkins - By law we have to pay it. 0 Cl Beck -Okay. Page 27 of 32 TB 1 ] -7 -01 Atty Perkins - We can't pass it along. We can't avoid it. So it's about a $20,000 difference. That's to cover the volunteers. That's a statutory requirement. 0 Cl T Hatfield - I had done an analysis similar I guess to what Mahlon's done and what you've done Ron. And after looking at it, one of the things all of these analyses are done based on the same assumption for gross fees. If you take the gross fees for the calendar year 2001 forecast this year, and use that number instead of the $124,250, it's actually $132,000, more than is what is being used in these comparisons. I don't know why the $124,250 was used or where it came from, but if you use last year's rate and look at it, the difference gets even smaller. The point is you don't know what the earnings side of this is going to be, so you don't have an iron clad structure in what you're going to generate in revenues. You don't know how many calls you'll have or what kinds of calls you're going to have. But you can look at history at this point which you didn't have five or six years ago, and I think be pretty comfortable with those numbers. So I don't think that there's a difference here in terms of dollars and cents that: makes sense at all. When you consider right now the Town of Dryden has, if you buy the 8 number from Bangs, we have literally 11 ambulances available to service our community. They all have certificates of need in Tompkins County. If you eliminate Dryden Ambulance, Inc. it seems to me that brings the available units in the County down to 8. That puts stress somewhere, whether it be in Lansing. If we pay 25% and put them in Dryden by contract, and we've got a pretty good lawyer so we'll write a pretty good contract and enforce it, but that means somebody else somewhere else is paying the price, not to mention the price that we all pay by not having the resource that we have in this community, which is all of you who we're looking at: here tonight.. You guys and gals are a tremendous resource to this community. You spend a lot of time and put a lot back in, so those dollars to me don't justify making this type of change. Cl beck - If all we're looking for is dollars and cents the first area that I would attack would be go ahead and pursue the billing through Dryden instead of having some outside agency pursue collection. If we want more money returned on our calls, that needs to be a board policy decision and it needs to be decided at this table and we need to tell whoever that we're contracted with okay, go ahead and go to collection, we want these bills paid. But the first step in my mind is through the provider that we have right now, not call in somebody else from the outside and say okay you go ahead and bill our citizens, suck it out of them. Somebody told me that we decided when this thing was set up that we weren't going to go that collection agency route so that the people who could not pay or in some instance refused to pay, and I don't know how you separate those two, you probably don't until you get your lawyers or collection agency involved, we decided not to do that. So if we want more money out of the thing, that's step number one. A Grant - You'll still lose quite a bit going through a collection agency. Cl Beek - Sure you will. What do they get? 25% at least, maybe 40 %, it's a big chunk. C Michaels - Mahlon, you mentioned the $8,500 for the volunteer force. If we had Dryden volunteers on Bangs Ambulances, would we still have to pay that $8,500. Atty Perkins - Yes. C Michaels - So that's a wash. Atty Perkins - Yes, assuming you could get any Dryden volunteers to go with Bangs. R Flynn - Is that $8,500 just strictly for volunteer ambulance people? Atty Perkins Yes. Pagc 28 of 32 T13 I1 -7-01 Supv Varvayanis - Dryden gave one proposal where we take the money that they collect. 1 would be more comfortable if we decide to go with Dryden to have them collect and keep the money. We have no control over the collection, and it would make more sense. Cl Beck - I thought of the same thing Mark and I think that's something we need to discuss because we've had a trouble with billing, and we've had trouble with getting reports as to what was billed and what was collected. 'That's been one of the problems over the last couple three years. We don't know what's going on. So I think that is something that we should discuss. Let: them go ahead and bill it and keep the money. We got a contract, write the contract based on a certain percentage of recovery. if you can collect more, keep it. If next year it looks like you collected a whole hell of a bunch, then we'll write the contract for less. I agree 100'%,. I don't think we should decide we're going to do that right now, 1 think it needs to be discussed, but that's a better option than giving it to Bangs. Cl T Hatfield - I think there are several issues here that we either feel we need a little bit more research in, or maybe a little more discussion on. Maybe what we could do tonight is leave it this way. Let's leave the table tonight: and have some discussions. Dryden Ambulance asked to have those discussions. Let's talk about that. option, how that might: be incorporated now, and come back to the issue next Wednesday night. That's part of the budget because these numbers are going to affect: the budget to a certain agree. So we sort of really need to resolve this by Wednesday in order to put the budget in place anyway. Is that fair enough? Does that make sense? Cl Beck - Relative to that, l think it might be important to kind of explain what's happened with this tax rate. There's going to be one hell of a change in the tax rate. Maybe you should tell us just how it got there. We had a fund balance that has been depleted, and Is now we're changing the contract so one lute item gets moved to another. But the tax rate is going to be ten times more than it was before for ambulance? Cl T Hatfield - The proposed tax rate for ambulance for the coming year I think is 53 cents a thousand, compared to the 8 rents a thousand you were looking at. I think there's some history that some of you may have seen or been around. So it's a significant change in rate. The chart you just held up basically shows the history of what's happened over the last several years. When we went into this with paid paramedics we knew Nve could identify the costs pretty good. The first year we took into t:he budget only the costs. We budgeted for zero revenues. So what that did was took all the revenue generated in that first year period basically as surplus inside the district. Remember this is the Dryden Ambulance district; these funds are not co- mingled with the general funds of the Town, it's separately accounted for. So you had a surplus. Now, each year since that as we started to get a history on revenues we've been bringing the tax rate down, and last year we brought: it down to a point where we consumed the rest of that surplus. And we had a pretty good surplus, around $100,000. You don't need those types of funds sitting around earning interest. The taxpayers would rather spend it, from my perspective at least. So the tax rate of 8 cents reflects basically the consumption of the last of that surplus that was generated at that point. So what you ve got going on right now in essence is a flip back toward the real cost of operation. I think the point you were making is legitimate, that 53 cents a thousand is still one whale of a buy, but it ain't the buy it was 8 cents. The 8 cent number was reduced before you saw it, by the consumption of the surplus that had been generated over the last four or five years. And that's the right thing to do. But right now, ironically enough, it's coming at this point in time where we're looking at these other changes. ® Supv Varvayanis - And we also had some billing problems that resulted in the shortfall. Rage 29 of 32 TB 11-7-01 Cl T Hatfield - Right. And we've increased the number of paramedics and we've looked • at some other issues. So all that comes together and we have to adjust the 53 cents depending on what we determine here in some discussions in the next week. But that 53 cents right now covers pretty much what we've got in front: of us in either one of those two proposals. A Grant - Will that 53 cents build up a new surplus? Cl Grantham - No. Cl Beck - Not at that. rate. Cl T Hatfield - It: shouldn't, ideally it wouldn't. It may, depending on what: you do with the revenue side. We've tried to adjust. We've added mileage. We've increased the rates slightly. We had an issue where all of sudden the hospital stopped providing meds back to the ambulance upon completion of a call. We adjusted for that. Contrary to what you might be thinking, I think it's been a pretty good working relationship over a period of time. What we've got right now is two or three things, in my view, going on. One, you've got another change coming. You're basically looking at bringing the management under one roof. For Dryden Ambulance, Inc, if that's where we're going, they become employers. That's not an insignificant change. That takes adjusting on everybody's part. I think that's part of what you're hearing here. It's certainly part of what I've heard from the members I 've talked with. I think that's a good point Ron. I think that needs to be understood and if I didn't make that clear enough, just ask me and I'll try another tact. Supv Varvayanis - So do you understand what we're looking for at this point? B Ackroyd - Yes. 0 Supv Varvayanis - So you'll come back with where you collect the money and keep it. Cl Seek - I think we need to spell it out clearly what we are asking for. I don't know as they've got it yet. B Ackroyd - I think we do. Cl T Hatfield - I think we should meet again. Cl Grantham - The ambulance committee, and have that discussion, and we probably should have a discussion with Bangs too. The Ambulance Committee will meet with members of Dryden Ambulance Inc on Friday morning, November 9, at 8:00 a.m. Cl Grantham - And Mahlon, you'll investigate the certificate of need? Atty Perkins - Yes. Supv Varvayanis (to Chris Michaels) - I hate to put you on the spot, but since you live in FUis Hollow, what, if anything, have you heard about response time out there? Do you think that's a issue, and would you like to see that addressed in some way? C Michaels - 1 can honestly say I've heard absolutely nothing about response time either way. I guess what I'm unclear about as a factual matter is, if I dial 911 how is it determined who shows up at my door? Is it absolutely, positively Dryden? 0 Page 30 of 32 TB 11 -7-01 Supv Varvayanis - dell, in this County, yes. Again, I talked to Jack Miller, and he said you cannot do with ambulances the nearest responder like they do with the police. Could you look into that, because that would solve some problems. R Young - In the patrol cars they have a locator. That's how they can pinpoint where an ambulance or police car is. We don't have locators in the ambulances. Supv Varvayanis - 1 understand that, but Jack's point was that the State law for some reason prohibited doing that with an ambulance. R Rizzo -The Town of Dryden is the Dryden Ambulance district. So Bangs should not be coming into our district.... R Young - It's on a mutual aid basis because our insurance would have to cover them if something happens. R Rizzo - So if we specifically asked the dispatcher to dispatch Bangs if we have three ambulances tied up, Bangs will be covered by our insurance to respond to the Ellis Hollow or Varna area. Supv Varvayanis - But I think the whole point we're trying to say is one of the issues that was brought up is that they say they can respond so much quicker to Varna. If they can, maybe they should just be responding to Varna. This is an issue, if it's legal, that we should look into. D Putnam - You'd have to have contracts with both of them. isSupv Varvayanis - 1 realize that, but that's another way to look at it. ?? Looking at these times and talking about response times, there's a lot of things that goes in with those, like time of day, traffic patterns and honestly looking at the three different times, you can't tell me that they're going to make it to Varna every single time in 7 minutes and 10 seconds. Supv Varvayanis - I noticed it, and I'm sure everyone else did. D Shigley - If I could just make a comment: on ways in which Dryden Ambulance has addressed issues when we knew that there were places that were difficult for us to get to, and one of those places is out in Harford. In the area that we provide assistance to, we know that on Daisy Hollow Road, it takes us a long time to get there. We have worked with TLC so that if they hear a call and they have an ambulance available, they will automatically .start that ambulance that way. And we'll be in contact through our dispatch. And everybody agrees, whoever gets there first will take the call, because what's most important to us is that the individual receives the service that they need, not whose area it's in. We've done the same thing with Slateiville ambulance, where our areas meet on Midl.ine Road. Because if they can get there faster, they can be there and provide assistance and we can decide who's going to take the patient in. If we know that there's a need, we can make arrangements with Bangs or TLC or any other ambulance to assist us in a mutual aid way so that the individual that needs the service gets the ambulance that can get there the fastest to do that service. We've done that on more than one occasion. Cl Beck - I want to ask you folks something too. I should know, but I don't. This new ambulance, the third ambulance. It's a new vehicle. Is it a replacement vehicle? (No) So you have had three in service for how long? Page 31 of 32 'rB 11 -7 -01 B Ackroyd - 1990. When we built the new building, we built three bays and that's when we acquired the third ambulance. We're on a. nine year replacement cycle. Every nine years we roll one over, so every three years you get a new ambulance. 0 Cl Beck - And it's been rolling, that vehicle's been available for 95% of that time? B Ackroyd - Absolutely. The only reason we've lacked one the last few months is because we have a new one on order. The build time for it was delayed, the factory that's manufacturing it. We had somebody that wanted to buy it. We had to strike while the iron was hot and sell it, and we did, and we've been without it for a couple of months. Cl C Hatfield - Do you buy truck and body new every time, or just the body? B Ackroyd - Everything. Cl Beck - So the satisfaction that the community has enjoyed is based on three ambulances here for the last ten or eleven years? B Ackroyd - Absolutely. J Buckley - On three separate occasions I have started Bangs in that general location because of delay in coming from the other hospital or our driver is running behind, and two of the three times we've actually either arrived can the scene or beat them and once they beat us. So it's kind of a wash there in most cases. B Ackroyd - I think there's a point you're missing here, and it has to do with all the other fire departments that are represented here. They provide what we call a rescue service. So if you're in Ellis Hollow, the transporting ambulance that: comes from Dryden may take 8 minutes to get: there, but the Varna Fire Company who's two miles away may be there in a minute and a half. They've got bandaids and bandages and defibrillators and heart monitors and oxygen, so that's why this system work. Like I said, it's a living breathing animal that works together very well. Tear the heart: out of it and you'll kill it. Cl Beck - And do 1 dare ask the following question? if it was Bangs that was going to respond, then the rescue would not be quite as efficient? I don't expect an answer to that. 13 Ackroyd - The thing is, and I asked Jack Miller the same thing, there is no obligation for the Fire Departments to provide a rescue service. They do it, but they are not obligated to. Cl Grantham - 1 think it would be a good idea to get comments about the Bangs service from other people who are using their services. I'm tallying about the other Towns. 1 don't think it's fair to have one proposer giving references about the other proposer. On motion of Cl T Hatfield, seconded by Cl Grantham, and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m. Respectfully submitf:ed, 1407461. //��.� Bambi L. Hollenbeck Town Clerk Page 32 of 32 VILLAGE OF DRYDEN - R 0 L I C E Department of 16 South Street Post Office Box 820 Dryden, New York 13053 visit Us on dw ~dWWe web 0 W Ww &vdarrNYAry November 6, 2001 Members of the Town Board Town of Dryden 65 East Main St Dryden, NY 13053 Ladies and Gentlemen: In recent weeks the Town has explored the option of replacing the current ambulance service provided by the members of the Dryden Ambulance Corp with an outside commercial vendor. The reasons for this exploration are unclear, but I would assume that it might be a cost - cutting venture. As a public safety professional with over twenty years of experience in police, fire and emergency medical services I would caution the Board regarding any movement away from a community based approach to providing emergency medical services. The citizens of the two Villages and the Town, which are serviced by the current ambulance service, have a significant investment in the current program. That-investment reflects pride and spirit in our community and the volunteers who staff the ambulances, Local people who live and work in the community staff the Dryden Ambulances. These people have a sense of dedication to the community and of service to their friends and neighbors. The members of the Dryden Ambulance receive- the same high level of training as their paid counterparts and are held to the same standards as paid paramedics and EMTs. a�2�sinoS/, /1e C szmrrizi�c6ri�.tc� d' ��i{� , 0 Page 2 November 6, 2001 While a commercial service may be able to provide better staffing it is doubtful that it could provide services to such a higher degree that the loss of our local paramedics and other ambulance staff would be justified. I urge the Town Board to carefully consider this issue. As with any issue concerning public safety, cost cutting for the mere purpose of saving a few dollars could reduce the level of service to a point where a patient does not receive prompt attention and care. Having both lived and worked in communities where paid commercial ambulance services are the primary provider of emergency medical care, I can attest to the fact that the level of service is foremost in a patient eyes, not necessarily the cost of the service. DR YDEN CENT AL SCHOOL DIS SRI T November 7, 2001 TO WHOM IT MAY ON ER , 1'. 0_ {fox 88 Doycl rr, AT 130513' .earn office (60;)844 -8694 Disillicl (){ +ce (607j844 -5361 FA.V (b07j844 -47,33 1 am writing in support of keeping the services of the Dryden Volunteer Ambulance Company in the town and surrounding areas_ The services provided to the Darden School District are a valuable resource. Contracting the services of a paid ambulance service would put a financial burden on the District regarding coverage at athletic events, We have an excellent working relationship with the Dryden Volunteer Ambulance Company and its members, Please reconsider your decision to change the service provider, }ds ii Steven C, Woodard Athletic Director "CELEBPA7C ohe Law of Leerrrdng 11 ® Harford Fire Company .Inc. 760 NYS RT, 221, P4 7 Harford, NY 13784 November 6, 2001 Richard Young,. Chief Neptune Hose Company/ Dryden Ambulance Inc. :North Street Dryden, NY 13053 RE.. AMBULANCE C'UV RAG Dear Chief Young, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the concerns that we the members of the Harford Fire Company (HFC) have with regards to the ambulance coverage your organization provides in the Town of Harford. We believe that there is a resolution before the Supervisor and Town Board of Dryden to change the way emergency medical services are delivered in the Town of Dryden. ® I am speaking to the recent legal ads to accept proposals for ambulance coverage in the Town of Dryden. Nowhere did I see the towns of Virgil or Harford listed as additional responsibilities for the successful bidder. 1 am hopeful that the board members have considered these binding agreements that have been in place for several years, The Harford fire Company and its members have worked side by side with your organization for almost twenty years in delivering. emergency medical services to those in need in our respective coverage areas. What has been most admirable is the success of your paid Paramedic program. Recognizing the overwhelming_ need and requests for EMS, your organization through a collaborative agreement with the Town of Dryden, instituted a program that has become successful beyond anyone person's expectations. The day of two to three activations for medics has become a thing of the past. Advanced life support (ALS) provided by your ambulance is often on location in less than 10 minutes from activation with many times arriving simultaneously with Harford EMS units. Potential changes in the geographic staging location for ALS units that would result in an increase in this timeframe would lead us to request that the Harford Town Board weigh this heavily before entering into another agreement. Harford "Rescue" has evolved into a widely respected basic life support (BLS) first response agency through unselfish individual efforts of several of the Dryden Ambulance Inc. members. Outreach training_ classes, hands on exercises, communication e<Iuipment and countless hours of administrative assistance has provided some of the necessary tools ® that have made our squad what it is today. The "Big Brother" approach your department continues to provide to the HFC is what our ® members fear would be sacrificed by privatizing the ambulance service in the Town of Dryden. Familiarity amongst the fellow rescuers can reduce the stress levels often associated with many emergency scenes. Can guarantees be made that the ongoing fellowship amongst local emergency personnel will continue with an out of area EMS provider? Community based emergency services provide the personalization that is not offered with a "for profit" ambulance contractor and their come and go employees. Serving the communities in which we live establishes a vested interest in the level of service, professionalism and consideration for the public's perception of our abilities to provide these services. The Dryden Ambulance has several members whom have made personal sacrifices such as countless sleepless nights, half eaten family dinners, missed children's after school events and shorten days of work to rush to aid of another for over twenty -five years. I would be astonished if there were more than a handful of private ambulance employees that have worked for the same company for more than ten uninterrupted years of service. The Hanford Fire Company looks forward to continuing its long. established hand in hand working relationship with your organization, Realization of the fact, we are all in this together, has enabled both of our agencies to excel beyond our communities highest expectations in providing emergency services. The amount of appreciation and respect for Your members cannot be expressed enough. Simply put, thank you. Sincerely yours, Brian Pendell, Chief Harford Fire Company Town of Hanford 394 NYS RT 38, PO Box 120 Harford, NY 13784 November 5, 2001 Ronald Flynn, Deputy Chief Neptune Dose Company ~Month Stroet Dryden, NY 13053 RE: .R,WBULC CF CON17WAC7' Dcar Mr. Flynn, In the past few weeks it has come to our attention that the Dryden Town Board has requested proposals for ambulance coverage in the Town of Dryden, Nowhere did I see in the legal ads the Town of Harford and Virgil listed as additional coverage area responsibilities_ We hope that considerations for the contracts for ambulance coverage and honoring them are included in all prospective "bidder's" proposals. The Town of Harford and it's citizens continue to appreciate the level of service and timely response by the Dryden ambulance crews along with the professional level of care they continue to provide. This is even more evident since the inception of the paid Paramedic program some live or more years ago. Our citizens have been receiving the highest level of care possible in a non - hospital environment Nkith your implementation of this more efficient concept of deliveringemergencjr medical services. The Harford Town Board has an obligation to the residents of Harford to continue to enter into contractual agreements with an emergency care provider that is located within a reasonable distance from the majority these same residents. Getting a person in need the highest level of care in the shortest amount of time is the service we desire for all our citizens. Changes in the timeframe, level of certification or availability of such service would sere as valid reasons for the board to seek coverage elsewhere. The Town of Harford looks forward to continuing. its Ion& relationship with the Dryden Ambulance Inc. and it's members, The requests for service continue to increase more and more every year. We the Town Board of Harford cannot begin to thank you enougr for the individual efforts put forth b� your organization. Respectfully yours, Brian Pendcll, Supervisor Towmoll Harford_ November 6, 2001 Town of Dryden Board 65 E -. Main St. Dryden, NY 13053 Dear Board ivtenibers, PERSONALIZED INSURANCE It has conic to our attention recently that the Town of Dryden Board has decided to consider removing ambulance protection for our community from the Dryden Fire/Ambulance Department. We would like you to remember that the lire Department took over the ambulance 25 years ago, in October 1976, when our community was faced with a dilemma. The ® commercial service, Perkins Funeral Service, found that they could not financially provide service to our community without charging outrageous fees for service. is The Fire Department took over the service, which provided extremely basic service, and developed it into a very professional advanced life service. Until approximately 1996 it operated with volunteers only; when it became apparent that like many other communities they could not provide the service only using volunteers. The Fire Dcparnnent Board sat down with the Town Board, keeping in mind that both their interests were in providing the community with professional advanced life support based in the community, they partnered to hire paid paramedics. Apparently, there seems to now be a conflict in that arrangement and the Town is considering other options. We would encourage the Board to again sit down and work out an arrangement that both are comfortable with to provide a community based ambulance service. Please keep in mind that a conunercial service, while appearing less expensive, is going to charge residents a much higher fee and demand payment even when people are unable to pay. They certainly will not keep two or more ambulances in the Village to provide service not only to our residents btgour neighbors in hlarford and )4i;gril. r 78 North Street • P. O. Boa 70 • Dryden, New York 13053 60718444555 or 1400 -61 &5799 Fax: 6071844 -8885 www.cotterill.com. a a Town of Dryden Board is November 6, 2001 Page 2 In closing, please remember that the local volunteer certainly wants to provide the community and their neighbors with quality emergency services. The commercial service may not have the same motives or goals. Sincerely, ca//1 I�6ug s '. Cotterill and Bradley T. Cotterill DEC /clt cc: Dryden Ambulance, Inc. board of Directors o�rOEN 40* TRUSTWORTHY HARDWARE LOMAC, INC. 59 West Main St. PO Box 46 I)ryden, NY 13053 Ph:607/844 -8663 Fax:607/844 -9744 November 6, 2001 To: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board As a Business Owner in the Village ol'Dryden. I encourage you to keep the Ambulance Service; provided to us by the Town of Dryden Volunteer Fire Department. We feel that the Village and the "Town are best served by our local service. Dollar for dollar we are better- served by local volunteers, who live and work in the community. It doesn't make sense that an outside service will be able to provide the same quality service and response time that our own Fire Dept. does. It stands to reason that the number of ambulances alone makes for better coverage to say nothing of the distance. Thank you very much for your reconsideration in this very important matter to this Town and Village. Sincerely, GGlL�fLarz� Lt_l l �C.tC�tK c' Anthony W. Huchko Dryden Agway A1WH:ee Stephen Carpenter 64 South Knoll Dr. Dryden, NY 13053 November 7, 2001 Dryden Town Board 65 E. Main St. Dryden, NY 13053 To Whom It May Concern: As a Dryden resident and businessman I am concerned about the quality ambulance service we will be receiving if you decide not to continue the ambulance service as we know it in Dryden. I feel the response time is very critical and if we have to wait for an ambulance to come from either Cortland or Ithaca, that would be an additional fifteen minutes or so before help arrived and it could be a matter of life or death. I would hate to have family, friends and co- workers put in a situation where immediate care would not be available. I know Lansing went to this system and the residents are faced with extended response time and I would not like to see this happen in Dryden. Sincerely November b, 2001 Town of Dryden 65 Last Main Street Dryden, NY 1 3053 Dear Board Members: It has come to my attention that the Town of Dryden is seeking proposals for ambulance service. I would encourage the Board to continue to have this service provided locally by Dryden Ambulance as a community based operation. The residents of the 'Town of Dryden have benefited from this service for many years. I am concerned that if the services are to be provided by an ambulance service outside of our community that the response time and attention to our citizens .would decline for little benefit in reduced costs to the taxpayers. Please continue to obtain and maintain these important services in our community, Thank you for vour consideration. Sin • rel�r John W'. Bailev 7 Goodrich Way Dryden, NY" 13053 f l TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. ADDRESS I ME r C%JG` O f,, Z11. 74Z a � D %(J TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members. It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS - /L . V�544 00 iISM el N- WZ S.3 yc 6 �- 3 tl cJ-r� 3�� 3 1;re�3 f Mawr ` IMMMWINOINNUM � . r 3 o S`3 J/ 0,v T0: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. ADDRESS ��e� 1� TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS P r AA >dn T0: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS NY L/ � `7 lio Irjo Lf.. Z -n-1 j -e^ V601/� RP-30064i T0: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME -r xIrl ADDRESS A r . �r q TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS �90 A J P 13 u6� �y tf ail j a�4S c I.r►v Rd CGr�1�r��Q ►JY �3� S 94P 0^ 01 TO; Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization} that has provided service to the area for over 25 years_ We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want there to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS 1 <% t 0 V V/ r'r G- /6' 6�: 14 1 TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. "ME ADDRESS � S IA wz_6 -j ' -o %cy �G) ROx- D �7 r , 6) ® TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS I 2 TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. uwRfir Y CXA"� . /CLA cle� ADDRESS ylo A i/o dio4l�l 7 Tc. !S P;14-on `7d. tlArullepn I� Iron tom. D mac- �\ VV de� J.Y 13L73 d1_'11 /91652 ..0� l0 ® TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS y�? 3 Ifo� 3 �, b/e4d. Lle TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. ADDRESS 0 149- P,E VAOO � 4C Acv/ DW Y..o_.f/ L J '1 IN YOD�Ej I3 40C dCAh D/'rl1C- Fk- aCdi(le..t/Yr370? 1� l V WEPA 6 TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: the Town of It is understood that Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS ,r ii [ r 1 /U Main �YPEA3 N N� 41- E3 S - C `t :C 10 r 0 io TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS 11101-c' f a.2 1 _ 13. 3 Sf (3 O+- 3 9( 46- ►- ry j.e�/ atZ JC;�,opc 661-:;N kV-6MVea .M9 Was, '".1rRs :APJPWff4-= 70`2�f .k/ V, zim F�,i�lu Vy ?d X/y �J.707 *,1!�,d IV-tl. �y 1.3 ear /378'% 7 rq TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS 12 TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS ���.25c� 1 0C rQegy� lop r�'4 5 r .���1 ✓c+od -KCB ,/�r2 Q �'c/ / //P � /U. �f, X35 L�ood Ra . ':Flw v r 0735 (.�nocL�Pd .I ` Vwi 11e_ ?•y y Gos 5 5T, / 4L14? A Q Cd e- cAf f% �iYy�Z e� b'll ha, d 1, n P A71 F,r- -e yr 7 /C' G� C� w 1 0C rQegy� lop r�'4 5 r .���1 ✓c+od -KCB ,/�r2 Q �'c/ / //P � /U. �f, X35 L�ood Ra . ':Flw v r 0735 (.�nocL�Pd .I ` Vwi 11e_ ?•y y Gos 5 5T, / 4L14? A Q Cd e- cAf f% �iYy�Z e� b'll ha, d 1, n P A71 F,r- -e yr 7 /C' G� C� TO: Town Supervisor Varvayanis & Dryden Town Board members: It is understood that the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Town Board are seeking to change the way emergency ambulance service is provided to the residents of the Town of Dryden (including the villages of Freeville and Dryden) by contracting with a commercial ambulance service and eliminating the mostly volunteer organization that has provided service to the area for over 25 years. We the undersigned hereby notify the Town of Dryden Supervisor and Board Members that we do not want them to change the way ambulance service is provided and strongly encourage them to continue with the community based ambulance service provided by Dryden Ambulance Inc. NAME ADDRESS o/ J , ///0 2�714 r ;7-.2. i P�)A , 1-17ei%)N'y1s �` Town of Drvden Town Board Meeting ® November 7, 2001 ame - {Please Print} 0 .� � % w f LC Address ��1 rro V � 1 (L C'C , ti /,s /O Al �,Br t% r7 /y Cos .S 7 6/ "// L•,I )W 13 <%��h �• ir/� Free v,'� /e ZOAI 8)11/ �-GK20OYD 2 e- AtJ �Of�I(C 4 40 �yaA/ A Name - ;Please Print) SCV /r Town or Dryden Town Board Meeting November 7, 2001 A� &C Address I -D .)j 1p I LL� 4Q, y LJ_ r'7AIAJ C�zv,E. < C < �` 300 41veoezev ST" ); rot �, % 6� 2 n �r� Q �y lcwn of Uryden Town Board Meeting November 7, 2001. 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