By William J. Kemble
Daily Freeman
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. — Town officials’ efforts to improve ambulance response times were praised after an incident last month in which an infant girl was saved after nearly drowning.
In an email read during the Town Board’s meeting on Thursday, Aug. 7, Ulster Hose Co. No. 5 Fire Chief Shawn Heppner expressed his gratitude for the officials’ work.
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Heppner wrote that on Saturday, July 12, the fire company was dispatched to a home where a 10-month-old girl had been found in her family’s pool. “With the dedication and fast response of the fire department and Empress (Emergency Medical Services), this baby will be able to return home to her family in the very near future,” Heppner wrote. “I thank the Town Board for listening to the departments speak up when we were in need of ambulance services in our town.”
Empress was hired by the town starting the first week in March at a cost of $1.28 million for the remainder of 2025 to cover the towns of Ulster and Kingston. Supervisor James Quigley said it was money well-spent because the response time was far superior to the times that preceded the agreement, which was 9 minutes 27 seconds in February
“Ambulance ULSA-1 was dispatched and arrived on the scene in 3 minutes and 11 seconds,” he said. “Ambulance number two, ULSM-1 cleared Health Alliance … Hospital and arrived on the scene in 5 minutes and 30 seconds. These response times demonstrate the effectiveness of the program that Chief Heppner was referring to.”
Under the contract, Empress is required to reach the scene of calls within 11 minutes, 59 seconds, for at least 90% of dispatches. However, during the first three months of the contract, Empress had a response time of 6 minutes 53 seconds for its two primary ambulances and 8 minutes 45 seconds for its additional unit.
Before the contract, the town was previously served by Empress on an availability basis. In August 2024, the Town Board was told by fire officials,
The agreement resolved having dedicated units for the town, which was previously served by Empress on an availability basis. During an August 2024 meeting, Town Board officials were told by fire officials, who were also part of the basic life support system, that a contract was needed because more than 5% of calls were turned over to other services. In some cases, they added, there were waits of 40 minutes or more.
At that time, Heppner said the extended wait times were “not merely an inconvenience, they can mean the difference between life and death in critical situations.”
During the meeting, board members took the final step in establishing the town as an ambulance district, allowing the emergency service to have a designated line on tax bills beginning in 2026. It also allowed officials to prepare spending plans without having increases in ambulance costs having to be factored in when calculating the property tax levy limit.
“The state passed a piece of legislation that the governor signed allowing any ambulance districts to be excluded from the tax cap calculation,” Quigley said. “So, the expenditures and the increase in expenditures do not adversely impact other town districts as it relates to their ability to (establish) a tax levy.”
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