The Colonie Town Board on Thursday, Dec. 18, unanimously approved the renewal of a contract with the New York State Police to continue the EMS LifeGuard Air Rescue program.
The program, which since 1993 has paired Colonie EMS responders with state police on flight rescue missions, became a controversial issue in the town over the summer when Supervisor Paula Mahan decided to not renew the program, citing what she believed to be the lack of necessity and the town’s potential liability associated with the program.
The supervisor’s decision to discontinue the program came to light after nearly 40 EMS responders crowded the back of a Town Board meeting on Thursday, July 10, urging her to reconsider.
While Mahan made no promises to reconsider the contract with state police, board members did schedule an August public hearing on the matter.
Flight rescue missions depart from Albany International Airport and have gone as far as the Hilltowns and Berkshires to assist victims. When they are not on missions, the more than a dozen responders who are trained to go on the flight rescues remain in the Town of Colonie.
One of Mahan’s original concerns was that while the responders are on flight missions, they are not in the town, helping residents who are in need. Another her concerns was the cost of the program, in lieu of an over $19.4 million deficit the town faces.
We did take into account just the facts this is nothing personal,` the supervisor said told an emotional crowd of EMS responders in August.
After an over two-hour public hearing on the topic, where several Colonie EMS responders and rescued victims spoke out in favor of the program, the supervisor and Town Board opted to extend the program until Dec. 31 so that the town could take a closer look at it before deciding whether to enter into a new contract.
The decision was voted on after United Public Service Employees Union Labor Relations Representative Gary Favro, who has been defending the program, pledged to pay for an audit of the program to be completed with a cost-benefit analysis to satisfy the supervisor’s concerns.
According to Favro, he was never taken up on his offer as the town had decided to complete an audit of the EMS Department as a whole, and to his knowledge, the specific portion of the audit that applies to the LifeGuard Air Rescue has not yet been completed.
As the Dec. 31 deadline began to creep up, the supervisor decided to keep the program alive, with some restrictions. Those specify that only the supervisor is able to adopt internal rules for the program, as opposed to the Colonie EMS chief, no family member of an EMS responder is allowed to fly on the helicopter and no member of EMS personnel is allowed to sit in the pilot or co-pilot seat.
According to Town Attorney Michael Magguilli, those rules were added to the new contract to further decrease the town’s liability in the event of a crash, specifically the rule about EMS personnel sitting in the pilot and co-pilot seat.
`By doing that, they become flight crew. Now they’re not just acting as Colonie EMS, but also unpaid flight crew for the state of New York and our liability becomes even greater,` Magguilli said.
A 100-mile rule sparked some discussion at the Dec. 18 before the final contract was approved.
While Magguilli said the 100-mile rule was a part of the original contract between the town and state police, Favro argued that there are many locations the flight medics travel to when on a mission that exceed 100 miles — one of which being the nearest burn center in Westchester, which Favro estimates to be about 125 miles away.
Favro said hopes that state police will work with the town to come up with a more reasonable distance that accommodates all emergencies.“