TOWN OF TONAWANDA, NY (WKBW) — There was a big announcement Thursday from the Town of Tonawanda to address ambulance response times.
The town announced it will start its own ambulance service to serve both the town and the Village of Kenmore.
@TownofTonawanda Supervisor @joeemmingerr announces the town will begin its own ambulance service for town & Village of Kenmore. @WKBW pic.twitter.com/QpvD3ZS7Hz
— Eileen Buckley (@eileenwkbw) October 3, 2024
“It's just busy. We take upwards of 20 plus calls a day,” remarked Matthew DeRose, paramedic supervisor, Town of Tonawanda.
By the start of next year, the town plans to have two ambulances in service, a third by next summer and a fourth by the end of 2025.
“This is a great day for our community,” declared Joe Emminger, supervisor, Town of Tonawanda.
Supervisor Emminger made the announcement Thursday and said they're concerned about response times from providers like Twin City Ambulance.
"Our paramedics make the call, they arrive at the scene, and sometimes they have to wait upwards of 30 to 60 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. They can't leave the scene until the ambulance arrives to transport the person to the hospital, so that delays them from going out on other calls that are needed in our community,” explained Emminger.
“They've not approached us about any response time issues. Everything was said today is pretty much fiction,” responded Terence Clark, president, Twin City Ambulance.
I asked the leader of Twin City what was happening, and Clark denied those long response times.
"I can tell you, there has not been a single call in the last 12 months that has gone anywhere near an hour. In fact, longest response time we've had out of the last 10,000 plus calls has been 36 minutes — one call,” replied Clark.
Clark told me he's had “zero dialogue” with the town on this issue.
“That's a mystery to me. I have no idea what is motivating this. I have no idea why we're seeing these claims. They have the records. they know our response times are about eleven minutes and that's cold, that's no lights and silent response and it's by design, and it's their choice,” Clark noted.
The town said the ambulance service will be for 9-1-1 calls only.
"We took 8,296 calls last year, 6,000 of those required ambulance transport, so that's we're talking about that 6,000 number,” DeRose explained.
For 50 years the town has provided its own paramedic service. The paramedic supervisor said they are very busy, and this new service will be a big help.
"So this is to make us more efficient. this is to make us have more, I don't want to say reliable, but more control over what we're having provided to the public,” DeRose noted.
The town board, police, and its paramedics have been looking at this for some time. They said there is a pressing need to address the more than 6,000 9-1-1 calls that come into their system requiring ambulance service.
The town even commissioned a study finding the service is needed for the community.
But Emminger said they would still be utilizing outside ambulance companies to transport people to hospitals.
The cost of each ambulance is expected to be about $250,000. But the town already received some financial assistance. New York State Assemblyman Bill Conrad, who serves the town, delivered $250,000 in state funding to the town during the announcement.
Emminger said more details will be provided in the coming months and he will outline financial information when he delivers his budget message on Monday, October 7. But Emminger called the plan “budget neutral."
“It will be budget neutral at the worst-case scenario and we should and are expecting it to have a positive cash flow to the town and for the residents, so it's a win-win all the way around for everybody,” described Emminger.
