By Austin Jefferson
Daily Freeman, Kingston
KINGSTON, N.Y. — The Kingston Fire Department purchased a second ambulance last week for the purpose of providing a backup or alternate mobile mental health ambulance to respond to calls, Fire Chief Chris Rea said on Monday.
Rea declined to say how much the ambulance cost but said that he got a good deal on the ambulance and that a standard ambulance usually costs upwards of $100,000. The purchase he said was made with COVID funding. Rea said the ambulance wouldn’t be operational for several months as it still needs to be outfitted with equipment and receive state certification.
He said the waiting list for new ambulances is 14 months so he felt he had to act after finding a good deal on an ambulance. In the event the city needs to have its own fleet of ambulances, he said he wants the fire department to be ready.
The city established the mobile mental health ambulance in February with a $321,034 grant from the New York State Office of Homes and Community Renewal and additional funds from the city to pay for future salaries and expenses. The ambulance operates from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday within Kingston city limits and pairs an emergency medical technician with a mental health specialist as they respond to mental health emergencies.
“It is my job to make sure the city is both prepared and capable of dealing with any emergency involving fire, medical or rescue,” Rea said.
Rea used the example of a fire where his department had an engine tied up for minutes responding to a call and couldn’t make it to a different fire because there wasn’t another ambulance to relieve firefighters as they provided aid. In a situation like this, he said, an extra ambulance would come in handy.
‘We’ll send that out if need be,” said Rea.
Rea also said that after Mobile Life Support Services was bought by Empress EMS, his department has been taking steps to be ready in the event the city decides it wants to create its own ambulance service rather than rely on commercial providers.
He said Kingston and other fire departments of similar size have a degree of concern about relying on commercial ambulance services. “We’re all kind of in limbo,” he said.
The fear, he said, was that if a commercial operation fails or is bought and new owners don’t want to continue covering a municipality, fire departments and towns aren’t left with many options.
Rea added that commercial operators aren’t controlled by municipalities and don’t have penalties for showing up late to calls.
City officials were not immediately available for comment on the ambulance’s purchase.
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