ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — Erie County is now in the ambulance business.
The county has announced the official start date for the county-run ambulance service that will be available to residents.
Initial coverage for the service will start off on Sept. 25 in Aurora, Boston, Colden, Collins, Eden, Holland, North Collins, and Wales.
2 On Your Side was first to report on the county's plan prior to it being unveiled in April by County Executive Mark Poloncarz in his State of the County Speech.
"The residents of Colden and the residents of the Southtowns will have that added security of knowing they have help coming," said Colden Town Supervisor Jim DePasquale, who also serves as First Assistant Chief of the Colden Fire Company, where the first of what will eventually be five ambulances and crews is stationed.
"Our company is down to four basic EMTs," he said, noting a problem that exists among several volunteer companies who are having difficulty recruiting and training personnel, which poses a challenge when answering calls.
You won't be able to call on the ambulance for service yourself, according to Deputy Erie County Health Commissioner Greg Gill, who has been placed in charge of the ambulance program.
It will only go on calls when dispatched through the county's emergency dispatch system.
"The primary response (local fire company) gets the opportunity to go to the call," Gill said. "If they have staffing issues, then the call would go to their mutual aid company in the surrounding contiguous service area around them. If they are not available then they (the fire company) will have the ability to call our dispatcher."
Gill, however, insists that despite being third off the bench there will be plenty for the six paramedics and EMTs who comprise the initial hires in program to do.
"In their downtime our plan is to go to senior centers and talk to them about health care, and go to schools and talk to kid about futures in hospital care. We have a lot of things line up for them," he said.
The ambulance program will cost taxpayers nearly $5 million for startup costs and an estimated $2 million annually to operate. When it was approved by the County Legislature, minority republicans suggested it would be more cost efficient and effective to entice commercial ambulances to expand and to improve service in rural areas, rather than create a new county bureaucracy with additional employees.
Long-term plans for the program include constructing a Southtowns building designed as a base for county ambulance operations with an EMS training facility.
The county's ambulances will be sporting a white, blue, and orange livery which turned out to be Gill's choice.
"I grew up in Long Island," he said, explaining that he always admired the color scheme of Nassau County police vehicles. "I'd like to tell you the colors were picked as part of some high tech thing ... but no."
The county ambulance service will not be available for nursing home resident transports or other non-emergency calls.
To learn more visit www.erie.gov/ems/