Press Release, Mercy Flight, Inc.

BUFFALO – Mercy Flight, Inc., a leading nonprofit provider of air and ground medical transport services headquartered in Buffalo, announced today that it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Finger Lakes Ambulance EMS, Inc., a long-standing and well-established emergency and interfacility transport provider serving communities across the Finger Lakes region.

The acquisition will become final pending approval by the Finger Lakes and Monroe-Livingston Regional EMS Councils, and the New York State Department of Health.

For the past five years, Mercy Flight and Finger Lakes Ambulance have worked collaboratively to strengthen emergency medical services in their respective operational, clinical, and administrative areas through improved coordination, operational alignment, and shared clinical priorities.

Throughout this partnership, both agencies – like EMS organizations nationwide – have navigated increasing challenges related to staffing shortages, rising call volume, escalating operating costs, and unstable reimbursement structures.

Through ongoing discussions, both leadership teams recognized that a unified, forward-looking model could better address these shared challenges. As a result, the organizations have agreed to pursue a plan to combine under Mercy Flight’s nonprofit EMS structure—a model believed to be the first of its kind in New York State, bringing together a nonprofit and a for-profit EMS agency under a single nonprofit system.

“This opportunity allows us to offer access to safe, reliable, and compassionate ground medical transport services through our not-for-profit ground/air integration model,” said Margaret Ferrentino, president of Mercy Flight. “By integrating Finger Lakes Ambulance’s experienced teams and established operations into our nonprofit system and enhancing our existing working relationship with Mercy Flight Central (an unrelated nonprofit air ambulance provider headquartered in Canandaigua), we can ensure continuity of care while furthering our commitment to clinical excellence and community partnerships in rural communities. Because we already share such a patient-focused mission, this consolidation is a natural fit.”

Bob Woodhouse, chairman of the Board at G.W. Lisk, added: “G.W. Lisk cares deeply about the health and wellbeing of the people of Clifton Springs and surrounding communities. It is important to us that the high standard of EMS care in the region continues under a trustworthy partner that puts patients first. We believe Mercy Flight, with its nearly 45-years of service to its community, is the right organization to take on this responsibility. We look forward to seeing the combined leadership of these agencies and the accomplishments this partnership will bring.”

All of Finger Lakes Ambulance’s current employees—including EMTs, paramedics, dispatchers, and support staff—will be welcomed into Mercy Flight’s nonprofit mission. Operations will continue without interruption throughout the transition.

“We are proud to join an organization whose values so closely align with our own,” said Al Kalfass, executive director of Finger Lakes Ambulance. “Our teams are dedicated to caring for our communities, and we look forward to the continued growth and advancement of that work within Mercy Flight’s nonprofit framework.”

As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, Mercy Flight reinvests all net resources into patient care, safety, clinical excellence, and strengthened community service. The addition of Finger Lakes Ambulance’s service area will expand its regional coverage and improve coordination between air and ground EMS resources.

Mercy Flight foresees no changes to its air ambulance service in Western New York as a result of this ground ambulance service expansion, and expects to continue to collaborate closely with Mercy Flight Central, a completely separate nonprofit helicopter ambulance service that covers the Finger Lakes region.

About Mercy Flight Inc.

Mercy Flight is an independent, nonprofit provider of air and ground medical transport services, dedicated to providing rapid and cost-effective lifesaving care to communities across Western NY and beyond. Since 1981, Mercy Flight has delivered compassionate, high-quality medical transport services without regard to a patient’s insurance status or ability to pay. Today, the organization operates helicopter bases in Buffalo (headquarters), Olean, Springville and Batavia.

Mercy Flight’s ground ambulance division, Mercy Flight EMS, provides service for Genesee County, Niagara County, Orleans County, the Town of Hamlin, and the Town of Concord and Village of Springville. Together, the organization’s employees, now 300 strong, support the mission of being “A BEACON OF HOPE…WHEN MINUTES MATTER”. For more information, visit www.mercyflight.org.

About Finger Lakes Ambulance

Finger Lakes Ambulance began operations in 1955 under Walter’s Ambulance. It expanded significantly after merging with Geneva Town Ambulance in the 1980s and has operated under its current name since 1988. With approximately 100 staff members and a service area exceeding 1,200 square miles, Finger Lakes Ambulance plays a vital role in the regional EMS system, providing emergency and interfacility care across the Finger Lakes.

It was a sensational sunset this evening in Orleans County. Several people sent in photos to the Orleans Hub, including the top one of cattle on Marshall Road in Ridgeway. Kimberly Stawicki took that photo.

Kari Hagglund took this photo of the Butts Road canal bridge in Albion. She declared, “Gorgeous sunset tonight.”

Theresa Brien took this photo of the sunset. “Everything was pink!”

Mike Zeliff took this photo of the sunset on Route 63 in Lyndonville.

After several days of a deep freeze, the temperatures will climb above freezing on Wednesday with a high of 39. Then the highs are 48 on Thursday, 39 on Friday and 37 on Saturday.

Group wants DEC to be lead agency for environmental review process

Press Release, Allies of Tonawanda Seneca Nation

ALABAMA, NY – Local residents are denouncing a sprawling data center complex proposed by STREAM US Data Centers and corporate parent Apollo Global Management at Western New York Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing (STAMP) being developed by the Genesee County Economic Development Center in Alabama, NY.

Residents join the Tonawanda Seneca Nation in demanding that the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation take over from GCEDC as lead agency for purposes of environmental review of the new data center plan, which at 2.2 million square feet and 500 megawatts would be the largest in Western New York and more than twice as large as a plan proposed by STREAM and rejected by the community earlier this year.

“As a resident of Genesee County, I am outraged by STREAM’s new and monstrous plan. I urge all my neighbors and community members to join me in echoing the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s call for NYSDEC to take over as lead agency. GCEDC being in this role is the definition of the fox guarding the henhouse and would lead to even more harm and failed promises,” said Adrienne Yocina, a Pembroke resident who has been active in the Rethink STAMP campaign.

Calls from the GLOW Region are bolstered by a recent letter, signed by more than 100 environmental, faith, human rights, and good governance groups and 500 individuals from across New York state, which urges STREAM and Apollo to abandon plans for a data center at STAMP.

The letter, sent just prior to publication of plans for the new data center, expresses far-ranging concerns about the threats from such a facility to regional environmental quality, local quality of life, and the sovereignty and well-being of the federally recognized Tonawanda Seneca Nation, whose Reservation Territory abuts the parcel under consideration for a data center and whose Council of Chiefs has long expressed opposition to industrial development at STAMP. STREAM withdrew an earlier data center proposal after the Nation and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit alleging violations of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

“Stream’s first proposal was met with powerful, unanimous opposition from local community members and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation – including nearly 800 written comments, 50 spoken comments made at a public hearing, and countless opinion pieces published in local papers. A proposal for an even larger project would be an insult to the many people who passionately detailed the unsuitability of this site for a data center project,” the letter asserts. “Locating a data center on the Nation’s unceded homelands, surrounded by a network of public protected lands and in the middle of a vast complex of thriving, biodiverse wetlands: this is an ecological travesty that also threatens the existence of the Nation.”

STREAM’s new plan envisions a massive complex of three towering structures more than 100 feet tall, occupying more than 2.2 million square feet and using more than 500 megawatts of electricity per year. The facility would burn tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and emit carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, benzene, and other hazardous air pollutants. 500 megawatts is roughly the amount of energy required to power 350,000-375,000 residential homes for a year.

Allies of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation and others recently held a press conference outside the New York Power Authority (NYPA) Board of Trustees Meeting to highlight the ongoing failure of Governor Hochul, NYPA CEO Justin Driscoll, and the NYPA Board of Trustees to uphold the stated demands of the Nation regarding allocations of Niagara River low-cost hydropower to industrial tenants at STAMP. In an April 2025 letter, the Nation wrote that it “strongly opposes any allocation of low-cost hydropower to a data center at STAMP.”

STREAM intends to take advantage of space that was previously part of a parcel owned by Plug Power, which paused construction on its green hydrogen manufacturing facility in 2023, leaving a gap in financing for the onsite electrical substation. Despite hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies, Plug Power never turned a profit and has never produced hydrogen or a single permanent job at STAMP. Project Double Reed’s backers claim the project would produce roughly 90 permanent jobs.

STREAM’s plan also calls for onsite storage of 114,000 gallons of diesel fuel and discharge of 20,000 gallons of sanitary wastewater per day. Currently, GCEDC plans to store sanitary wastewater discharge from operations at STAMP in a large sewage tank located onsite. Wastewater would be transported daily by diesel truck to be dumped at a municipal wastewater facility in the Village of Oakfield.

GCEDC’s STAMP Committee and Board of Directors will meet on Thursday, December 18 at 3:30 p.m. at the MedTech Centre in Batavia. GCEDC is expected to formalize its intent to take lead agency status for environmental review of the data center complex under SEQRA, giving other agencies 30 days to accept or dispute GCEDC taking this role.

In September, GCEDC voluntarily rescinded approvals for a smaller data center plan from STREAM. This rescission followed litigation by Tonawanda Seneca Nation and the Sierra Club, which asked that the approvals be vacated based on GCEDC’s violations of both procedural and substantive requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The litigation contended that GCEDC violated the law when it issued decisions awarding subsidies of $472 million to Stream U.S. Data Centers and conducted environmental review without project specifics or site plan review.

“Data center” is a generic term referring to operations ranging from cryptocurrency mining to Artificial Intelligence processing. Data centers are well known for their massive energy demands and for producing continuous low-frequency noise and vibrations. Scientific research establishes a link between excessive noise exposure and harms to both public health and the health of wildlife.

Data centers also produce significant air pollution and add significant load to the energy grid, leading to higher consumer electrical bills and increasing the frequency of blackouts and brownouts. Data centers produce few permanent jobs, rarely remain in operation for more than 10-15 years, and face growing opposition from communities across the country concerned about their noxious public health and environmental impacts.