EMS panel inks deal for paramedic service

They didn’t pop champagne, but elected officials in the villages and towns of Fredonia and Belgium last week reached a milestone in cooperation and emergency medical service.

The Joint Fire/EMS Committee, after a few years of working together, unanimously approved a 10-year intermunicipal agreement on advanced life support paramedic service in response to a critically shrinking volunteer pool at the same time the number of medical calls is significantly rising.

The agreement has the town and village of Belgium and Town of Fredonia contracting with the Village of Fredonia for paramedic service with the goal of 24/7 coverage. The municipalities’ other ambulance services remain unchanged.

“There’s nothing more important that you ever did that’s going to affect our constituents,” Belgium Town Chairman and Joint Fire/EMS Committee Chairman Tom Winker said.

While the Village of Fredonia is running the program, financial restraints were added to help with budgeting. Fredonia is required to notify each municipality of the projected budget increase by Aug. 1 each year for the following year. If the increase is 6% or less, the budget gets approved. If it’s more than 6% and any one of the municipalities doesn’t approve, it reverts back to 6%.

Budget surpluses carry over to the following year’s paramedic services budget.

Fredonia Fire Chief Brian Weyker said having more paramedics will also increase revenue. Fredonia had to outsource 39 paramedic calls since it couldn’t handle them. With a fully staffed station, those calls will be handled and income will come to the joint service.

The funding formula is determined by the average population of each municipality, call volume and equalized value improvement. The percentage breakdown by municipality is: Village of Belgium, 30.43%; Village of Fredonia, 28.64%; Town of Fredonia, 23.21%; and Town of Belgium, 17.72%

The villages of Belgium and Fredonia are holding fall referendums asking taxpayers to pay for their portions of the service. The two towns plan to ask their residents for a tax levy increase at elector meetings.

If a municipality wants to withdraw from the agreement, it must provide notice between July 1 and Aug. 1 during the fifth year of the term. The municipality would remain part of the agreement until the end of the 10-year term, which is April 5, 2033.

“The idea there is to give the rest of the municipalities some runway to figure out what we do next,” Fredonia Village Attorney Mike Herbrand said.

“I think it’s pretty long,” Fredonia Town Chairman Lance Leider said, noting that the agreement automatically renews for seven years.

“No one knows what seven years down the road is. There may be private firms. This may be stronger than ever.”

Winker said, “We either hang together or we will all hang separately. It’s so important to every constituent you have.

“You talk about lifesaving. I always say at meetings,  What if it was for you?”

The department has two full-time paramedics and one part-time paramedic. On Jan. 1, the plan is to hire a second part-time paramedic.

Weyker said all three were needed at a bus accident Sept. 16 in the Town of Fredonia.

A full 24/7 operation calls for three full-time and three part-time paramedics.

Now, each of the four municipalities will be asked to approve the agreement.