By Michael Ryan
PRATTSVILLE - The long-delayed contract for ambulance service between the towns of Ashland and Prattsville has, in the musical words of the wonderful Stevie Wonder, been signed, sealed and delivered.
Prattsville town supervisor Greg Cross, in a telephone interview, said he dropped off the papers at the Ashland town hall, last Wednesday, along with a check, the first of two split payments.
The renewal comes nearly five months after the original due date and amid considerable, very public wrangling between Cross and Ashland town supervisor Richard Tompkins.
Money was at the core of the stalemate, not merely in terms of a bottom line dollar amount, but also in relation to differing perspectives on how Tompkins runs his financials, a highly contentious issue.
This was not the first time the annual re-up was stalled. Similar obstacles arose the previous year and were finally settled following a lengthy clash.
Only six months will pass before Ashland is slated to provide a proposed 2026 deal, with Prattsville given 20 days to respond, leading to a new contract on or before December 31, the document states.
In the meantime, Prattsville, for the year 2025, has agreed to pay Ashland $220,629.55 (which is calculated as $310,100.88 less $70,000 estimated income for 2025 based upon the 2024 calendar year).
The total also reflects a credit of $19,471.33 for income during the period of September 2024 through December 2024, the new pact states.
No one was heard singing the Stevie Wonder classic, “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” with Cross saying, “it’s not perfect but it’s a contract.”
Agreement came after Tompkins bowed out of direct negotiations, sending town board members Scott Tuttle and Jeff Gonzalez to sit and schmooze with Cross and Prattsville town board member Mason Chase.
“We’re happy to have it resolved,” Cross said, noting the accord, “accounts for some of the money we’ve been talking about,” along with a financial reference to the creation of a countywide ambulance system.
The contract states, “at the time the county ambulance service commences operation, Ashland shall pay to Prattsville the sum of $40,000 representing Prattsville's portion of the fund balance for the fiscal year 2024 and $28,000 representing the fund balance for fiscal year 2025.”
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That particular section may be complex. The Greene County Legislature is currently hosting a series of talks on forming a single, countywide system, eliminating existing municipal squads.
Those discussions were prompted, in late 2023, by a collective appeal to lawmakers from six mountaintop town supervisors, asking the county to essentially help them get out of the ambulance business.
The supervisors voiced deep concerns about ever-rising costs and worker shortages they believe threaten the entire system, going so far as to say the current way of doing business is not sustainable.
An outside consultant was hired by the legislature to do a study on the existing system with four options presented for improvement and sustainability including a county system.
Since last fall, lawmakers have been holding monthly conversations with government leaders from all 14 towns and emergency medical services professionals including administrators and in-the-field personnel.
Those discussions appeared headed toward unification, perhaps as early as 2026, but after the latest sitdown, on May 14, they seem entangled in the same disparate attitudes that have long characterized the issue.
Lawmakers, lead by county administrator Shaun Groden, have provided an anticipated cost for a unified system, setting it as high as $15 million.
That represents an increase of $125 per year over what an average single-family homeowner is now paying for ambulance service (with variations up or down in each town based on assessments, equalization rates, etc.).
Groden revealed those numbers on May 14, at the county Emergency Services Center in Cairo asking town leaders what they wanted to do.
His point blank question resulted in blank stares and virtual silence, what Groden called “crickets,” not masking his frustration at the situation.
Mountaintop supervisors have voiced a willingness to embrace the county plan but even among their ranks, there are doubts about its success and when and how the change should come.
Greenville town officials are similarly inclined to align themselves with the move, but their squad is currently run by a non-profit entity whose chief administrator has launched sharp social media opposition to the plan.
Towns such as Catskill are on the fence, and the towns of Cairo and Durham have barely, if at all, participated in the legislative talks.
Apparently hearing Groden, Windham town supervisor Thomas Hoyt, immediately after the May 14 legislative session, called for a special meeting of all supervisors, moving to an upstairs room.
Most but not all were present. They spit-balled on where they stand on the issue, where their respective town boards stand, and what they want and don’t want, along with sundry other topics.
The legislature has its next ambulance session scheduled for June 11, and the supervisors in the room decided to hold their own chat, on June 5, focused on figuring out what to tell Groden exactly what they want.
It was agreed every effort will be made to get every supervisor to attend on June 5, aimed at putting everything on the table, no holds barred
There is no guarantee that will happen, perhaps leaving these talks in the same spot as similar discussions held a decade ago.
Back then, a special Task Force was formed, doing a study similar to the one recently performed, coming to basically the same conclusion.
It was determined a countywide system would be the wise choice to move forward, based on the exact same set of circumstances as today.
Leaving the decision in the hands of the towns, too many of them, after much hemming and hawing, opted out, killing that year-long effort.
Longtime lawmaker Harry Lennon (District 8, Cairo) was part of that Task Force and has been at the forefront of these latest conversations.
Sitting in the legislative meeting room, on May 14, he could be heard to say, “this is what I was afraid of.” (Please see related story in our “Legislature Stuff” column).
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