GUILDERLAND — Longtime EMS Supervisor Jim Reagan has officially gone into retirement starting on the week of Aug. 11, according to Jay Tyler, its director of EMS Operations.
“I’ve known Jim since 2003 when I started and he was a paramedic supervisor there at the time,” Tyler said. “Jim was one of the original paramedics in Guilderland. He was there in 1986 when the town had to create a police paramedic unit and during the evolution of the system, he became a full-time supervisor and later retired but worked part-time for a little while.”
Regarding the latter point, Tyler explained that Reagan had technically first announced his retirement three years ago but still decided to stay on a part-time basis to help the transition process. Tyler said Reagan’s retirement ceremony/picnic, sponsored by Guilderland EMS, was held at the town’s Western Turnpike Golf Course’s pavilion on Saturday, Aug. 10. A Facebook post about this generated over 70 likes and over two dozen comments from local well-wishers.
When he was still working as a supervisor, Reagan was in charge of field operations and system status management, was also a controlled substance administrator, provided backup support when needed, and handled staff and vehicle issues, according to Tyler — “He was essentially the liaison to the EMS director.”
Reagan had long worked numerous jobs across the Capital District in the past couple of decades, including his time at Guilderland EMS, being the Maintenance Superintendent for Bethlehem’s Department of Parks and Recreation, being the Elsmere Fire Department Chief, and more. Speaking of Elsmere, its fire department posted a congratulatory photo of a cake in Reagan’s honor on its Facebook page on Wednesday, Aug. 14; it has received almost 100 likes and over a dozen comments from local well-wishers too.
“I believe he was here for around 30 years but he wanted to enjoy life,” Tyler said. “What I’ll miss about him was his calm demeanor and how collected he was under any situation. I remember we had a Guilderland nursing home that had a CO [carbon monoxide] issue and we had to evacuate the place and Jim got our medical director and the police there. He was always very good at commanding.”
The Guilderland EMS continues to offer ambulance service, prehospital medical care and Advanced Life Support First Response, covering almost 100 square miles.
