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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1994-08-03• • August 03, 1994 The Lansing Town Board met in Special Session at the Lansing Town Hall Board Room on August 03, 1994 at 8:00 P.M. with Supervisor Kirby presiding. Jeannine Kirby Herbert Beckwith Paul Butler Jeffrey Cleveland Larry Tvaroha Bonita Boles Debbie Crandall Richard John ROLL CALL Supervisor Councilman Councilman Councilman Councilman Town Clerk Deputy Town Clerk Attorney Present Present Present Present Present Absent. Present Absent Visitors: Paul Welch, George Johnson, Mr. & Mrs. Tom Todd, Linda Beckwith, Matt Shulman, Stephen White, Robert -Baker, Pete Barron, Joan Hardie, Dale Oplinger, Howard Cahalan, and two other Lansing residents. The Supervisor called the meeting to order having the clerk take the Roll Call. Mrs. Kirby opened the discussion on the Ambulance Service within the Town of Lansing. Mrs. Kirby referred to a copy of the contract between Sullivan County and the Eastern Paramedics, Inc. That contract was done in a joint effort between volunteer people and a contracted ambulance service. Mrs. Kirby had the contract reviewed by the Town Attorney and the Town Accountant. They thought the contract was well done. At this point the contract is working well for the Town of Sullivan. Paul Welch presented the Town Board with the following copy of the letter from Central New York Regional Emergency Medical Services Council (REMSC) serving Cayuga, Cortland, Onondaga, Oswego, Tompkins Counties, and East Syracuse, New York. At the July 19th meeting of the CNY Regional EMS Council, extensive discussions were held on your Ambulance Application. The Review & Comment Committee has identified that there is_ a need for service in the Lansing area. However your application package does not show a concrete plan to meet this need. The identified issues with your application are. 1) Budget figures have changed several times and there is no verifiable commitment from the municipality to fund this proposal. 2) Staffing both volunteer and paid is not well defined nor planned out. 3) After much discussion and 2 motions that failed to ganter a majority, we passed a motion to table your application until our next that meeting your on committee September has 13th, 1994. until September The motion also 1st to submit stipulates additional information and revised plans to meet the identified needs. The identified issues with your application are. 1) Budget figures have changed several times and there is no verifiable commitment from the municipality to fund this proposal. 2) Staffing both volunteer and paid is not well defined nor planned out. 3) Mutual aid coverage for multiple calls and times without ALS coverage needs to be addressed with an agreement. 4) Need to identify funding and /or allocations of needed equipment (IE ambulances) 5) A real plan for housing the service needs to be identified and verified as appropriate. If your revised plan is agreeable to the committee, a second public comment period will be scheduled for September 13th at 6:30 P.M. and the REMS will take action on your application later that evening. ]l3 114 August 03, 1994, continued Mr. Welch stated that the Town Board would be involved with items one and five. Mr. Welch presented the following Budget. Office supplies and equipment--------------------- - - - - -$ 700.00 through Expendable supplies and equipment---------------- - - - - -- 71500.00 Lansing protection Training - (registration fees, books, seminars) -- - - - - -- 41000.00 be Valuation Personnel - (uniforms, protective clothing, immunizations) 3,000.00 789,547,634.00 Printing, advertising, etc .-- -------------------- - - -- -- 300.00 138,4151850.00 Insurance ------------------------------ ---------- - - - - - - 15,000.00 Equipment- ---- ---------------- ------------------- - - - - -- 5,000.00 Maintenance-------------------------------------- - - - - -- 5,000000 Fuel-- ------------- ------------------ ------------ - - - - -- 21500.00 Utilities-- ----- --------------- ---------- -------- - - - - -- 71000.00 Contingency-------------------------------------- - - - - -- 351000.00 Vehicle replacement ------------------------ ------ - - - - -- 10,000400 Salaries (4 paramedics - 24 hours) ---------- ----- - - - - -- 100,000.00 1951000.00 TOTAL START UP COSTS VEHICLES ALS vehicles and equipment are presently maintained within the fire service. The board of fire commissioners will support realignment and use of these as the taxpayer feels appropriate. HOUSING Present consideration is for ambulance service operation to be incorporated with a new municipal facility proposed for the Town of Lansing at a central location. FUNDING To be funded through tax allocation in the same manner as is the fire Lansing protection Assessed service. be From tax roll determination figures March 1, 1994 Town of Lansing Total Assessed funding will be Valuation Exempt Total Taxable 789,547,634.00 through appropriate referendum. 138,4151850.00 65111311804.00 Ambulance service tax @.30 cents per $1000 of assessed valuation. $195,339.00 Small additional amounts have always been realized through donations and memorials. Funding in this manner would provide a service that would be charge free. If cost recovery was implemented through moderate users fees, the amount necessary through tax could be substantially reduced. If there is a determination of need, this proposal for funding will be subject to voter approval through appropriate referendum. STAFFING Employment of up to four paramedics if necessary. A minimum of a paramedic and a driver on duty at all times with volunteers providing additional attendants. ORGANIZATION Board of directors President and CEO - Town Supervisor - Under corporate law responsible for general management of the affairs of the • U ]1 August 03, 1994, continued corporation. Paramedics - Could jointly manage daily operations or if felt necessary could establish a director and assistant With a low call volume there would be time for other responsibilities such as. Mr. 1. Medical coordination - ALS requirement, protocols, changes from the Board 2. Training - CME, CQI, In house, keep certifications and Village-of current the vehicles. 3. Scheduling, coordination of volunteers, physicals, shots Town of 4. Vehicles, equipment, supplies transfer to be equipped .so as to be certifiable by the NYS Department Mr. Welch stated that this is not what the Town Board saw in the proposal. After the hearing they requested that _Mr. Welch provide them with more information. This type of proposal had not been discussed because we were all still learning what was available under General Municipal Law 122B. Mr. Welch passed out the following resolution the Lansing Fire from the Board of Fire Commissioners and Village-of concerning the vehicles. the following vehicles, when declared surplus, Whereas provision vehicles were purchased of ambulance service department-by by the Lansing Fire Department was discontinued this specific as of August 15, and Village-of 1992; said proposal, And whereas two new vehicles were purchased for the fire department-by the taxpayers of the Town and Village of Lansing for this specific purpose, and Village-of Lansing; In order to obtain maximum benefit in the public interest to maintain and provide general ambulance service for the residents of the Town and Village-of Lansing; said proposal, the following vehicles, when declared BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED. After approval by the New York State Department of Health of a proposal to provide general ambulance service for the residents of the Town and Vi 1 1_age of Lansing, and when ready to implement said proposal, the following vehicles, when declared surplus, will be made available to the municipal government of the Town of Lansing to be used for this purpose. Said vehicles at time of transfer to be equipped .so as to be certifiable by the NYS Department of Health for providing advanced life support ambulance service. THIS RESOLUTION SUBJECT TO VOTER APPROVAL. Mr. Welch introduced Mr. George Johnson a professional consultant for Betterment of EMS from Albany, New York, Mr. Johnson gave an overview of the letter that was received from REMSC. Article 30, Public Health Law requires that when you start a new ambulance service the. applicant for the new service must prove to the satisfaction of the REMSC that there is a need for that new service. The State. Health Department and the State Emergency Medical Service Council states that the applicant has to prove that the applicant is able to provide that service and meet that need. .The group has applied to the Regional Council for permission to start a new .ambulance service. The issues that the Regional Council has raised is, 1. Can you provide the service? 2. Do you have the financing to provide the service? _ 3. Do you have the staffing to provide the service? The Council has put the application on hold until the Town Board can prove _that there is funding, housing and staffing available for the new ambulance service. If the Town Board wants to consider financing this ambulance service there are couple of ways to look at. I I G August 03, 1994, continued 1. Under Section 122B of General Municipal Law the Town Board can provide Emergency Medical Services. You can contract the service. You can provide the service with Town Employees or Village Employees. You can provide the equipment and the insurance. You can establish rules & regulations, policies and procedures. You can provide the funding as a Town Board. You can bill to recover the costs and bill the users of the service. You can provide the tax funding to run the service. Those that need the ambulance can be billed for the service and their insurance carriers would pay the Town back. Then the Town can recover some of the money that was spent in taxes. This is very flexible and allows the Town Board a great deal of latitude to provide the funding, housing and the insurance and the equipment, etc. 2. Town Law Section 190 which allows a Town to establish an Ambulance District response time as a Special Improvement District. commercial The Town Board could call for a referendum. The Town Board would then tax the residents of the Town for the cost of providing the Ambulance Service. This would be a separate tax line on the tax bill. Even with the tax district you still have the option of cost recovery billing. Mr. Johnson highlighting a Tax Mr. Johnson stated provided the Town District. that the Town Board with Board should a brochure compare the actual level of service support. It is time comparing the volunteer service with quality of service and response time to that of your current commercial provider. commercial service to Mr. Johnson stated difficulty with staffing, that the volunteer services are particularly in the day time. finding Difficulty with keeping up with advance life support. It is time consuming and expensive and when your call volume is low the people don't get a chance to utilize and groups have limited their maintain type of service their skills. Many volunteer to the basic life support level. They contract with provide the advance life a neighboring support service. commercial service to Further discussion Johnson of was held the concerning various ambulance services and the budget that was provided. and 50 day Mr. extension Johnson of suggested that the Town Board ask for a 60 to 90 tabling the application from the REMSC to explore all the possibilities and options available. It was the consensus of the Town Board to have Supervisor Kirby and Paul Welch send a letter to the Regional Emergency Medical Service Council asking for a 90 day extension on the application. and 50 cents for legal size The Town Board reviewed the information from Pete Larson, Highway Superintendent in regards to the estimated costs to build the private portion of Bill George Road. The Board's consensus agreed with the figures and the information will be passed on to the Town Attorney. The Town Board discussed the solid waste dumping and amending the Local Law. The Board will have George Totman, Code Enforcement Officer identify the areas that need to be changed and present them at the next meeting. Mrs. Kirby informed the Town Board that the Watchtower Group has requested copies of the minutes from the Town Board and Planning Board. The charge for these copies will be uniform with the Town charge, 25 cents for standard size paper and 50 cents for legal size paper. Meeting adjourned at the call of the Supervisor at 9:55 P.M. Minutes taken and executed by the Deputy Town Clerk. 1661� 6; L /&&&� n U