Gaines approves ambulance contract with town paying much less in 2024

Albion fire chief says not enough ambulances available to serve community, often resulting in long waits

GAINES – The Gaines Town Board approved a contract with Monroe Ambulance to provide service in the town for 2024, making Gaines the sixth of seven towns to approve the agreement. Carlton is the last of the seven and the Town Board meets this evening at 7 to vote on the contract.

File photo: Albion Fire Chief Jeremy Graham

Monroe upped the contract from $181,200 in 2023 to $300,000 next year. The agreement for 2023 would have been $200,000 but Kendall didn’t pay anything towards ambulance coverage this year.

Among the seven towns in the agreement only Gaines is seeing a decrease, down from $24,600 in 2023 to $12,030 next year.

The other six will all pay more as part of the contract. Here are the financial terms for the other six town for 2024 (with 2023 in parentheses): Albion at $155,820 ($84,400), Barre at $13,740 ($8,000), Carlton at $22,350 ($14,800), Clarendon at $25,350 ($18,800), Kendall at $17,850 ($0) and Murray at $52,860 ($30,600).

The leaders to the towns divvied up the town shares based on call volume. An Albion resident, Jason Dragon, said he believes an error was made and some of the Gaines calls were put in the town of Albion. Part of the village of Albion is also in Gaines, and Dragon said he suspects those Gaines calls in the village were mistakenly put in Albion’s numbers and is part of the reason Albion is seeing a huge increase while Gaines goes down.

“As a taxpayer in the Town of Albion I would hope Gaines would pay its fair share,” he told the Gaines Town Board.

Tyler Allport, the Gaines town supervisor, said he would ask Richard Remley, the Albion town supervisor, to verify that the village calls were properly accounted for each town.

Albion Fire Chief Jeremy Graham also spoke during the Gaines Town Board meeting on Monday and he said the current ambulance coverage is deficient for the Albion fire protection area in Albion and Gaines.

Albion firefighters are often first on the scene for an EMS call. What used to be a 5-minute wait for an ambulance to arrive and take over for more serious EMS calls has often turned into 30 minutes to an hour, Graham told the Gaines officials.

He looked at the data since April 2023 when Monroe first started as a primary ambulance provider in central Orleans. Graham said there have been 180 EMS calls, and 68 times Albion firefighters have responded because an ambulance wasn’t available nearby.

“Monroe Ambulance can’t provide us with enough ambulances,” the fire chief said. “The patients get very upset and irate with the wait.”

The $300,000 contract calls for Monroe to station an ambulance in Albion 24 hours a day, seven days a week and one in Holley for at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Monroe also will draw on ambulances in Monroe County if there is a need in Orleans County.

Allport said stationing two ambulances 24-7 in Orleans County would have cost $500,000.

Dave Bertsch of Carlton, a long-time medic with COVA ambulance, said the community is getting less service despite more cost for ambulance services. COVA closed late last year due to financial challenges. COVA did not receive any government aid from the local towns.

There often isn’t an ALS ambulance available for central Orleans, Bertsch told the Gaines officials.

“I said it last year that we’re going backwards and we’re still going backwards,” he said.

Charlie Ricci, a Carlton town councilman, asked the Gaines officials if they would be willing to partner with Carlton in a contract with Mercy EMS for ambulance services. The Gaines officials didn’t comment on that request.