By Charlie Specht
Buffalo News
LANCASTER, N.Y. — The Lancaster ambulance saga is officially over at least until the end of the year.
The Town Board on Monday night unanimously approved a contract to ensure the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps remains the town’s main provider of emergency medical services, ending four months of negotiation and some public jostling between the corps and Rural/Metro Medical Services.
"[I’m feeling] relief,” said corps spokeswoman Amanda Popiolkow-ski. “I think the board made the right decision, and we look forward to showing the board in the next year that they made the right decision.”
The contract, which has a two-year extension option, includes no money from the town, which decided in November to pull the $45,000 it gave the corps as town officials considered putting town ambulance service out for bid.
That move drew a strong reaction from the 85 volunteers and 30 paid members of the corps, many of whom have packed Town Hall meetings in recent months to show support for a contract extension.
Rural/Metro, which currently is a second option for the town, pushed for a “fair and open bidding process,” spokesman Jay Smith said. He said he wasn’t disappointed in the town’s decision but hoped the town would put its medical services out to bid at year’s end.
Smith said a recent public opinion telephone poll in Lancaster showed that residents overwhelmingly favored a fair bidding process, a contract with measurable results and the possibility of a commercial ambulance company serving the town.
He declined to say whether Rural/Metro organized the robo-calls, saying it “doesn’t matter” who was behind the effort.
Town Attorney John M. Dudziak said ambulance corps officials wanted to drop Rural/Metro as a second option, but the town would not consider that option. Popiolkowski said the corps had been searching for another backup ambulance company to work with, in part, because of the bad blood that has developed between the corps and Rural/Metro. “We don’t think they’re the best service to back us up now,” Popiolkowski said.
The contract, which expires Dec. 31, stipulates that the town will snowplow the corps’ parking lot and that the gas tanks of corps vehicles will be filled at the town’s bus garage, where gas is discounted. Either party reserves the right to forgo the extension at year’s end, with a 45-day notice to the other party.
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