Whether residents were for it, or against it, the Colonie EMS LifeGuard Air Rescue program has been extended until Dec. 31, as a result of a vote following the Thursday, Aug. 14, public hearing during which the hot topic was heavily debated.
Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan reversed her decision to not enter into a new contract with New York State Police in which 12 town EMS flight medics assist in rescue missions.
The 15-year-old program was scheduled to expire Sept. 1. Five weeks ago, the supervisor gave several reasons for not wanting to renew the contract, including liability, fiscal impact and in-air respondents not being able to care for residents of the town.
United Public Service Employees Union labor relations representative Gary Favro said the program actually generates revenue and still allows enough respondents to remain on the ground. He said that while liability does exist, there is liability in every task of an EMS respondent.
The discussions between the town and EMS department on the issue have ranged from the emotional to the controversial, leading up to a climax at last week’s meeting, in which the supervisor and Town Board were to vote on the contract.
The five-hour Town Board meeting centered almost entirely on a public hearing on the program, in which 10 individuals spoke in favor of it. No one in the crowd spoke against it.
Among the speakers were Favro, Regional EMS Director Michael Dailey, Albany County Comptroller Mike Connors, Director of Emergency Care at Samaritan Hospital Bruce Ushkow and several other EMS responders and town residents.
Ken Dott, who has been with the EMS since 1989, emphasized the fact that numbers should not count when it comes to saving lives.
This is our family we are talking about here, he said.
Retired Deputy EMS Chief Ron Baker pleaded with the board to reconsider the program, poking humor at the politics of the issue.
`Personally, for a political issue, I wouldn’t even touch this,` he said.
Baker continued, `It’s not a program that’s deceptive; it’s not out of control. But I know one thing, it’s a struggle that demands either one of two sides.`
When Mahan spoke, she told the crowd that her decision to terminate the program was not political and that she must act in the best interest of residents of the town.
`There are two sides to the story,` she said. `There always is.`
Preceding her, Town Attorney Michael Magguilli told the crowd results of research he had done that found the town was not making money on the program, and that the program would be a liability to the town `when something happens.`
Earlier in the night, longtime respondent, and 50-year resident, Jack Moser gave a 25-minute PowerPoint presentation, in which he refuted that the flight program carried any more liability than any other duty of the paramedics and broke down the costs and revenue by number.
He told the crowd, `We came here tonight, not as adversaries, but as partners.`
Partnership was expressed later by Favro, when he offered to pay for an outside auditor to examine the costs and revenue of the LifeGuard program.
Based on that stipulation, and pending results of a survey the town would to residents asking whether they want to pay, with their tax dollars, to continue the program, the supervisor voted to extend the program until December 2008.
Republican Councilman Brian Hogan made two attempts at amending the resolution on the agenda to push the date back even later ` the first time he tried pushing it to Dec. 31, 2009, and the second to July 1, 2009. Both extensions failed.
After the meeting, Favro said he was glad the town would be taking him up on his offer to pay for the audit so that they could learn more information about the program, although he said four months would not be enough. “