Town of Tonawanda Ambulance Service Update
Town of Tonawanda Police Chief James Stauffiger discusses the town’s plan to create a municipal ambulance service at a news conference Oct. 3 at the town’s paramedics division garage. Deputy Town Supervisor Gina Santa Maria and Town Supervisor Joseph Emminger look on. The town has started the hiring process for the 20 EMTs who will staff the ambulances but an initial launch date for the service of January or February is delayed.
The Town of Tonawanda is preparing to hire the first members of its municipal ambulance corps but the new service won’t be ready to launch as quickly as officials had originally predicted.
The town is seeking applications for the 20 emergency medical technician jobs and two paramedic jobs it needs to fill and is waiting to receive the four ambulances it ordered.
Town leaders had initially anticipated starting the ambulance service in January or February but that won’t happen now.
Instead, Tonawanda aims to get the program launched sometime in the first half of the year, said Matthew De Rose, the town’s paramedic supervisor.
“We were able to get the civil service posting up, finally get that situated, so now we can start getting applications and going through that process,” De Rose said.
The town caused a stir when officials at a news conference in early October announced they intended to start a municipal ambulance service.
Tonawanda leaders said the idea was largely a reaction to delayed response times from the town’s private ambulance provider.
Supervisor Joseph Emminger and others said they thought the town could provide a better service to its residents and do so while financially breaking even, at worst, or while making money in a best-case scenario.
Tonawanda Supervisor Joseph Emminger on ambulance service
Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joseph Emminger discusses the town’s plans for a new municipal ambulance service that would launch in 2025.
Town officials said a report produced by an outside consultant, Fitch & Associates, guided their decision.
The town’s current provider, Twin City Ambulance, questioned the conclusions of this report and defended the company’s response times to emergencies in Tonawanda.
Still, the town has moved ahead with the new program.
Tonawanda officials said in October they believed the service would launch by February with two ambulances, with a third ambulance added by summer and a fourth by the end of 2025.
The consultant recommended the town buy the four ambulances and hire 20 EMTs to staff them.
Two of the four ambulances would be in service around the clock, one would operate 12 hours a day and the fourth would be available as a backup.
The town also plans to hire two additional full-time paramedics to add to its roster of 16 full-time and seven part-time paramedics, who will continue to serve on the town’s paramedic fly cars.
De Rose and Emminger said approval delays set back the original timeline for the service’s launch.
The town still must obtain an operating certificate from the state Health Department, an authorization that follows an on-site inspection, De Rose said.
The town recently received permission to begin accepting applications for the EMT and paramedics positions through the Erie County Civil Service process, he said.
“We’ve had a lot of interest. So I’m hoping that a lot of interest turns into a significant number of applicants,” said De Rose, who added the town’s ambulance program will offer competitive pay and benefits and an appealing work schedule.
The next step is to interview preferred candidates, conduct background checks and get them into any necessary training, such as instruction on driving an ambulance, De Rose said.
He said all 20 EMTs and the two new paramedics should be hired by the end of 2025.
The Town Board on Oct. 21 voted to borrow up to $1.1 million to pay for the four ambulances. The board on Monday night voted to pay $945,640 to North Eastern Rescue Vehicles for the ambulances, including “all applicable equipment.”
De Rose said the town hopes to receive the rigs from the distributor sometime next month. The town then would have radios, computers, supplies and exterior graphics added in the weeks that follow.
De Rose said he couldn’t provide an exact date for the service launch but, depending on the pace of hiring, it should happen by summer with two ambulances and possibly a third available at peak times.
The town is still weighing where to keep the ambulances when they are not in use. Tonawanda’s paramedics vehicles are housed at its police and courts complex on Sheridan Drive.
That’s an option for the ambulances, said De Rose, but Tonawanda has other town-owned garages and has discussed the matter with its volunteer fire companies, too.
As for Tonawanda’s fractured relationship with Twin City Ambulance, Emminger said the town continues to talk to company representatives, most recently on Monday.
Emminger said the company opted to end its current services agreement with Tonawanda, effective Dec. 31, after the town announced its ambulance plans.
But the supervisor said the town and Twin City will have a relationship going forward, with the company providing ambulance coverage on an “as-needed” basis.
“That’s what we’re working towards,” Emminger said.
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Terry Clark, Twin City’s president, told The Buffalo News on Tuesday the company has continued to relay its concerns to the town about the inadequacy of its municipal ambulance service.
“I believe they now understand that the plan that they have developed will be woefully insufficient to cover the needs of the town and Kenmore, and they will need supplemental services,” Clark said in an email. “However, they are committed to proceeding.”
He said the town asked Twin City on Monday to extend its contract for 90 days. The company declined but has reached an interim agreement to provide its current level of service until Tonawanda’s ambulance corps is up and running, Clark said.
Twin City will not be able to provide the same services once Tonawanda’s program launches because, he said, the company will lose the “consistent and predictable call volume” that funds its operations in the town.
Instead, Twin City envisions a standby model that would pay the company to station dedicated ambulances in the town and village to provide coverage when Tonawanda’s ambulances aren’t available, Clark said.
Even so, he argued, “This means there will be gaps in service availability to town residents that they have not experienced in decades.”
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