The Nelson Town Board last week approved three resolutions regarding their intention to create a new Georgetown ambulance district in the town of Nelson: one to pay for the 2015 contract with the ambulance service, one to amend the rate of pay for district residents and one to set a public hearing about the proposed coverage contract.
Town Supervisor Roger Bradstreet also said he wanted town residents to be clear that this proposed contract does nothing to change the ambulance service currently received in the town, it merely creates a new ambulance district to allow the Georgetown Ambulance service an avenue to recover its rising operational costs.
Bradstreet’s clarification, stated at the board’s Jan. 8 regular monthly meeting, was made in response to some town residents who, after reading a Dec. 17 story in the Cazenovia Republican, became concerned about potential loss of ambulance coverage, unfair or unpaid costs by town residents and a misunderstanding that ambulance coverage as a whole was changing in the town.
“Readers [of the Dec. 17 story] might assume Georgetown coverage is new to the southern part of Nelson. It is not. Georgetown has served the area since the Erieville Fire Department stopped their ambulance service to that same area some years ago. Only the official ‘districting’ aspect is new,” Bradstreet said. “For clarification, nothing has changed. Main dispatching is done by dialing 911. The 911 Center continues to handle direct contact with respective agencies providing emergency services. Callers should call 911, not the agency.”
CAVAC currently covers about 90 percent of the town’s emergency medical needs, while Georgetown has covered the other 10 percent — 428 parcels. There is no redundancy of coverage between the districts, since the boundary lines are known to the Madison County 911 Center, but the two ambulance services do back each other up based on resource availability, Bradstreet said.
The Nelson Town Board began working to create the southern ambulance district in January 2014 after the state took issue with the legality of Georgetown’s ambulance operating outside of its own town bounds. Creating the district will fix this statutory issue. CAVAC currently covers its portion of Nelson under a districting contract.
As part of the Georgetown district creation, the town of Nelson had to determine the total assessed value of the parcels in the proposed ambulance district, and from those values determine the fee rate that district residents will pay on their annual tax bills. That rate has been determined to be 13.5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, said Town Attorney Jim Stokes. This means that a person in the Georgetown Ambulance district with a house assessed at $100,000 will pay about $13 for the year to have the service.
During the Jan. 8 meeting, the board unanimously approved 13.5 cents as the district rate; it also authorized payment of $2,300 to Georgetown Ambulance for the 2015 operating costs. Finally, the board scheduled a public hearing on the ambulance contract for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the town office.
After the public hearing, the board must pass a resolution forming the ambulance district; residences affected by this contract will have 30 days to file a petition requesting a referendum if they do not agree with the terms.
The service contract with Georgetown must be made by March 1, 2015 and will go through the end of 2016.
Also at the meeting, the board:
—Approved its organizational appointments for 2015, which was practically identical to the 2014 appointment schedule. Michael Costello was re-appointed as the deputy supervisor; Sue Volz was re-appointed as secretary to the supervisor and town bookkeeper; and Roger Cook was re-appointed as codes enforcement officer. The board also re-appointed Michael Emerson to a seven-year term on the town planning board and Carl Shaw to a five-year term on the town zoning board of appeals. The full organizational chart can be viewed by the public at the Nelson Town Office.
—Scheduled a public hearing to discuss extending the local law prohibiting parking along a certain portion of North Lake Road, which expired on Jan. 1. The law was passed in 2013 due to concerns from the fire department that the area near the Blue Canoe restaurant was congested at times by street parking and needed to be passable by emergency equipment. The original law contained a sunset clause to allow the board to review the parking situation and effectiveness of the law in 2015. The town had planned to undertake road improvements to that stretch of North Lake Road in 2014 to help with the parking issue, but that work did not get done last year. Because of that, the board agreed on Jan. 8 to discuss extending the law for another year, and plans to complete the road improvements this year. The public hearing is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, at the town office.
—Heard from Bradstreet that the town is actively investigating the possibility of installing solar panels on municipal buildings in the town, as well as possibly seeking to extend water lines from Cazenovia up to the Trush Business Park in Nelson. Both of these topics are in the very early stages of discussion, but he wanted to make the board aware of them, Bradstreet said.
—Reminded the public that the annual State of the Area event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, at the Nelson Odeon. Local, regional, state and federal elected leaders, as well as leaders from the Cazenovia Central School District and Cazenovia College, will be on hand to discuss the current state of their respective areas.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
