Zachary Meseck photo

NORWICH – City of Norwich officials discussed an ongoing, county-wide EMS crisis at Tuesday evening's Common Council meeting, ultimately deciding to formally initiate talks with the Chenango County Board of Supervisors to seek a solution.

Norwich Fire Chief Jan Papelino said, "The City of Norwich, we try to cover a lot of calls in the county. But the city does incur a lot of additional expenses that they don't recover. The city taxpayer is footing the bill for other municipalities, and their taxpayers aren't paying into that."

Because of a shortage of EMS ambulances in Chenango County, the city is often left to respond to emergencies in Otselic, Oxford, and other municipalities outside of the city's contracted region, Papelino said, an occurrence that both ties up resources and incurs expenses that aren't fully reimbursed and are ultimately footed by city taxpayers.

The city received a Certificate of Need in 1947 to provide an ambulance service, but townships are not legally required to have EMS. Papelino said this has been going on for years and has been identified by many as a problem, but that no one has taken any form of action to find a solution.

City of Norwich Common Council members agreed they would sign a letter addressed to the Chenango County Safety and Rules Committee to try to open a collaborative dialogue to fix the crisis.