Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. — The newly formed Niagara County ambulance service answered its first dozen-plus calls on Sunday, according to county officials.
The service is up and running with 13 employees, two ambulances (one used and one leased) and a plan to expand the fleet to four early next year.
The employees are Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians (AEMTs) Carl Farris, Ariana Cozzolino and Chris Sharpe, Critical Care paramedic Brent Ast, Paramedics Fred Ohlson, Chloe Brennan and Mohamed Nagi, Paramedic supervisors Tim Licht and Mike Carroll, and EMTs Taylor Summerville, Joseph Lewis and Jacob Meagher.
Thomas Eggert is the EMS manager. UBMD’s Dr. John McNamara is the medical director.
Two crews are scheduled daily, one from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the other from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to Jonathan Schultz, county director of emergency services.
“We extensively reviewed our data on EMS calls and it came as no surprise that the toughest challenge for our volunteer companies is to respond to calls during the workday,” Schultz said. “So we worked closely with our Fire Advisory Board and our fire chiefs to devise a schedule to fill in those gaps. I want to stress we view the county ambulance services as supplemental to the great work already being done by our volunteers.”
The county has four new ambulances on order now and delivery is expected in February.
Until then, the private AMR and Twin City ambulance companies are on contract to provide additional supplemental service as needed.
The county received the required Certificate of Need from the state health department on Dec. 15.
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