OSWEGO, NY – Oswego Town is considering changing ambulance providers from the city of Oswego to Mentor Ambulance, according to a member of the town board.
“We were looking for a couple months more service from the city of Oswego, so we requested that they consider a monthly contract in place of the existing yearly contract,” explained Greg Herrmann. “We proposed still paying the same amount each month (1/12th of the $10,000 yearly payment). From what I have read the committee decided they did not want to entertain that idea.”
The town hasn’t received any communication from the city as of yet, he added.
As far as the committee meeting on Monday night, Oswego Town officials weren’t aware that the ambulance question was going to be discussed, “or we would have been there to provide input,” Herrmann said.
Mentor Ambulance has made a proposal to the town board to provide ambulance coverage from the sub station they are looking to purchase on County Route 7/Byer Road.
“They propose housing three ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulances in their facility with two of them being staffed with paramedics. Their proposal is at a $0 cost to the town,” Herrmann said.
“Having three ALS ambulances available in the Town of Oswego, at no cost to the town, makes it hard to pass up and continue our current contract with the city for $10,000,” he continued. “If, for some reason, things become extremely busy then the Oswego County Mutual Aid plan would be utilized and the nearest ambulance dispatched by 911.”
The town notified the city on Nov. 29 of its official 30-day notice that they want to cancel the existing ambulance contract between the town and the city.
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And so it begins, soon Oswego will be stuck with all those ambulances and emergency vehicles and Menter will be serving the whole county. What would be nice would be an honest audit of how much revenue the OFD actually derives from the ambulance service, not how much it is owed, how much it actually receives! Then compare it to how much the service is costing the city, equipment, personnel, overtime, etc. I think they would find that it’s a real money pit.8K8H