Monroe Ambulance seeks big increase to renew contract in Orleans County

Photo by Tom Rivers: A Monroe Ambulance was at the scene on a fire last month in Albion on Phipps Road.

MURRAY – Monroe Ambulance is seeking a 50 percent increase in a contract to serve seven towns as the primary ambulance provider.

The company based in Rochester is in its first year of a contract with six towns in Orleans County. The first year was supposed to be for $200,000 but was reduced to $181,200 after Kendall bowed out of the agreement.

Monroe is now seeking $300,000 for 2024 to be the primary ambulance provider for the central Orleans towns of Barre, Albion, Gaines and Carlton, and the eastern towns of Clarendon, Murray and Kendall.

Randy Bower, a Murray town councilman, is on the negotiating committee for the seven towns working on a new contract with Monroe. He said during Murray’s Town Board meeting on Monday that Monroe initially was seeking “just shy” of $500,000 for 2024, but has since settled on $300,000.

At that amount, Murray’s share would increase from $30,600 in 2023 to $52,000 next year, said Town Supervisor Joe Sidonio.

Murray used part of its federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act to pay for the ambulance service in 2023. But Sidonio said the expense is budgeted to be covered by town taxpayers next year, and is driving a 20-cent increase in the town tax rate, from $4.61 to $4.81 for the outside-village rate and $3.03 to $3.23 for town residents in the Village of Holley.

The town will have a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Nov. 1 on the proposed budget for 2024.

“This is the one item that is putting significant pressure on the budget,” Sidonio said during Monday’s board meeting.

Monroe is seeking the increase to better compensate staff at a time when the minimum wage has been steadily rising, Bower said.

Bower and Sidonio said Murray officials are satisfied with the service from Monroe Ambulance in the past year. Monroe would keep an advanced life support ambulance in Albion and a basic life support ambulance in Holley and Brockport as part of the contract. The BLS would be based in Holley for 12 hours at the firehall and then 12 hours from Brockport at Strong West, Bower said.

“They are doing a good job here,” Sidonio said.

He praised local firefighters in Murray Joint Fire District for often being the first on the scene for EMS calls before handing off a call to a crew from Monroe Ambulance. He said local firefighters have been fast on calls to help many residents, including his late father-in-law, Jeff Machamer, who passed away on Sept. 24. One firefighter was quick to respond at 3 a.m. on a call and stayed with the family for several hours, Sidonio said.

“I can’t say enough about the local gang,” he said.

Sidonio and Bower said Mercy Flight hasn’t shown much interest in the ambulance contract this time. A year ago, Mercy Flight and Monroe Ambulance both pursued the ambulance contract with six of the towns voting for Monroe, while Kendall insisted its fire districts already had an agreement with Monroe at no charge.

Monroe this time is demanding Kendall pay towards having a dedicated ambulance in eastern and central Orleans.

Bower said he expects Monroe will be approved as the ambulance provider in 2024 with the contract to be reviewed again next year.

UPDATE at 2:00 p.m. on Oct 17: Mercy Flight officials say they are very interested in providing ambulance coverage for Orleans and would have two ALS ambulances in the county as part of a $180,000 contract agreement. Those ambulances would be mostly staffed with employees from the former COVA Ambulance based in Albion.