Certificate of Need Provides Ambulance for Town
By Stephen E. Lipken
Pelham Town Supervisor Daniel McLaughlin opened the Monday, July 7th Town Board meeting, beginning with Deputy Supervisor Rae Szymanski’s Emergency Medical Services Report (EMS).
“For the month of June, there were 110 calls, one of the highest we have ever seen,” Szymanski began. “Response time is 5 minutes and 9 seconds; on scene, 18 minutes, 87.9 seconds; transport, 14 minutes, 8 seconds; turnaround time, 30 minutes, 29.8 seconds.”
Szymanski then discussed Municipal Certificate of Need (CON). “When we first established the ambulance for municipalities to be a provider of our own EMS services, we believed that application for the State was the last thing we had to do. It was not. We now have to do a permanent application, hundreds of pages long. We have to send out over 200 letters to hospital CEO’s, so they can object if they want to. We are not looking for a Westchester license, we only want a license for our own municipality. We need to do a Mail Merge and get letters out and back by September 20th.”
Rae then discussed the Employee Manual which is being thoroughly reviewed. “There are things that we have to add that are still outstanding,” Szymanski noted. “Once we finish it, we will send it out for everybody to review.”
Next, Councilwoman Kara McLoughlin said that the summer recreation camps were going smoothly. “One hundred sixty-four students signed up for Big Top, the most ever. Day Camp has 120 children, which is the maximum allowed. Registration is open for Fall Soccer at pelhamsoccer.com. Camp Mindfulness for Special Needs students at Hutchinson Elementary School has 13 members.”
Councilwoman Kristen Burke stated that the Transit Mobility Study Grant through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) aims to increase access to zero-emissions, shared transportation options across NYS communities. Data is being compiled from a survey, feedback that will help inform the design of a flexible transit service for all Town visitors and residents.