NEW BERLIN – Following months of debate about which ambulance service would provide coverage to the towns of New Berlin and Columbus, both passed resolutions this week to contract with the Unadilla Valley Ambulance Corp.
The New Berlin Ambulance Service will continue to provide coverage for the village.
Two proposals were made at each meeting, one from each ambulance service, before the resolutions were passed.
At the New Berlin town board meeting Monday, Kenneth Wiggins, chief operating officer for the NBAS, told the board that the village-run service would be willing to honor the final year of the five-year contract made in 2008 between the three municipalities for the cost of $9,800.
Instead, the board voted unanimously to approve signing of a contract with UVAC for $19,900, which will go into effect as soon as UVAC is up and running, said Supervisor Ross Iannello.
Iannello said the decision to contract with the not-for-profit company, which was created in February, was made due to the fact that the village’s service is still facing $72,000 in debt.
The NBAS was created in 2008 after Superior Ambulance announced it would no longer be servicing the northeast corner of Chenango County. An advisory board made up of two people from each municipality was created to make suggestions and recommendations to the village board regarding the operation of the service.
“For two years, the towns have been trying to change things in the advisory board meetings ... but mostly they just get ignored by the village,” said Iannello. “We offered to pick up part of the debt, offered to let the village choose the administration ... but we wouldn’t agree on a way to combine the services.”
Wiggins voiced concerns at the meeting about the decision.
“As a resident of the town of New Berlin, I strongly oppose this decision,” he said. “The cost is twice as high and UVAC isn’t even fully formed.”
On Thursday, Columbus also passed a resolution, 3-2, to contract with UVAC.
A resolution presented by Councilman Pamela Weidman to contract with the NBAS at a fee of $8,036 was voted down.
Councilman Bruce Vermeulen provided a contract written by Albany attorney Terrence Hannigan to contract with UVAC as soon as the New York State Department of Health grants an operating certificate to the service, which Iannello said he expected within two weeks.
Wiggins asked that the contract be read it its entirety, at which point it was pointed out that many sections were incomplete – including the level of service being provided, whether it would cover Basic Life Support of Advanced Life Support, as well as what hours and days of the week would be covered.
“I can assure you that the contract will be finished by the time UVAC is up and running,” said Iannello at the Monday meeting.
Wiggins stated that the loss of the two towns would definitely have a negative impact on the NBAS, although, he said he is confident the service will remain operational and that the same level of service and care would be provided.
“We’re making many changes to the service to stem the expenses and increase revenue,” said Village Mayor Terry Potter, explaining that the service would begin hard-billing for services as well as decreasing overtime costs of the EMTs.
Wiggins explained that in the last two months, the NBAS has seen a remarkable decrease in expenditures. He said that the service was averaging $8-11,000 over budget in 2011. In 2012, that amount has decreased to $3,600.
“We were in the black in March and I expect the same in April,” said Wiggins. “Unfortunately, when the service changed to a 24-hour a day coverage plan, there was not proper thought put into the costs and the budget was only increased to $100,000 from $99,300 ... when we looked at the numbers, the budget should have been somewhere around $285,000.”
Iannello said that the not-for-profit UVAC will avoid many of the problems facing NBAS due to the fact that they would not have to adhere to civil service requirements that a municipal not-for-profit does.
George Coates, president of the UVAC board of directors, was unavailable for comment regarding the status of the service, although an ambulance has been purchased.