By Ashleigh Livingston
Press-Republican
LYON MOUNTAIN, N.Y. — The Lyon Mountain Fire District will increase EMS service beginning in February.
At a meeting on Monday, the Fire Commission voted unanimously to contract with Lyon Mountain EMS Corporation to have an advanced emergency medical technician (A-EMT) in the station 24 hours a day and an EMT to drive the ambulance to be on hand for eight of those hours.
Including payroll, insurances, supplies and other related costs, the coverage is estimated to come in at about $217,398 annually.
This will increase the tax rate by 95 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, bringing it to $2.98 for 2015, according to Commissioner President Bill Durnin.
‘BURNT OUT’
The district, which comprises parts of Saranac, Ellenburg and Dannemora, currently contracts eight-hour-daily EMS coverage through Lyon Mountain EMS, an independent nonprofit.
Under the new plan, a paid ambulance driver will be on duty from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and volunteers will take over for the remaining 16 hours.
“Twenty-four-hour coverage of an advanced EMT would give us a break,” EMS Corporation Treasurer and Rescue Capt. Candy Gonyea told meeting attendees.
Her organization comprises just three A-EMTs, one of whom is not yet online, and one basic EMT.
“That’s why we are so passionate about having the coverage, because to be real honest with you, I’m burnt out and tired of doing it,” Gonyea said. “Everybody here can become a volunteer to help.”
She told the Press-Republican in a separate interview that the district received 116 EMS calls in 2014, 146 the previous year and 152 in 2012.
THREE PROPOSALS
The commission had considered adopting a plan that would have called for both a paid A-EMT and an ambulance driver to be on duty around the clock. However, that proposal was met by opposition at a public hearing last month from residents concerned about the resulting tax-rate increase of $1.43 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
With no one on the board making a motion to approve the plan, it was taken off the table at the most recent meeting.
“Personally, I’m going to say right now, I’m for it,” Durnin said, referring to the higher-cost plan. “Unfortunately, my fellow commissioners don’t have the same view.”
After considering the public’s concerns, he continued, the board came up with three alternative proposals.
These included the plan that ultimately passed, as well as one that called for 24 hours of coverage by paid A-EMT service and 16 hours of coverage by paid drivers.
A third proposal would have brought 16 hours of service by both a paid A-EMT and driver.
‘WIFE ALMOST DIED’
“I’m telling you right now, folks, that if you don’t have a complete 24-hour coverage service (that is) paid, we’re all in trouble,” Jim Cronin told attendees before the vote at a meeting that grew heated at times, with attendees talking over one another.
The Chazy Lake resident said his wife almost died a few months ago because there was no one in the local district to respond to his 911 call.
“Two hours, I’m sitting there with a very ill wife, and if she’d have had heart trouble, she’d have died. And if it happens to me again, I’m suing,” Cronin said.
Commissioner Bob Weeks said at the meeting it had surprised him that so many people were against the initial proposal.
“To me, it’s only money. But we’re at a point now where we’re going to try and make the best (of it),” he said.
SLEEPLESS NIGHT
To that, Chazy Lake resident Art Whitbeck noted that he will be affected differently by a tax-rate increase than residents of Merrill and Lyon Mountain.
“My garage probably cost more than your houses. And what you’re going to pay compared to what I’m going to pay is 10 times different,” he said.
“I didn’t mean to say it like that, Art,” Weeks replied. “And that’s one of the reasons that I didn’t move forward on the first plan.
“It took me a while to get it, but I didn’t sleep good, and I thought about it, and I understand everybody’s position in the room the best I can.”
The new plan will be in effect from Feb. 15, 2015, to Feb. 15, 2016, and would have to be renewed by the Fire Commission to be continued.
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©2014 the Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, N.Y.)