Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - In an attempt to better serve the people of the Town of Tonawanda and Village of Kenmore, Tonawanda town officials will be launching its own municipal ambulatory services starting in early 2025.
Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger announced on Thursday the implementation of a new town-operated ambulance service, which will supplement the town’s highly respected paramedic service that responded to 8,296 calls, 5,200 of which required ambulance service in 2023.
The paramedic service has been in operation since August 11, 1975.
"50 years ago this year, the Tonawanda Town Board under the leadership of Supervisor Jim Ryan and others approved the startup of something that has become one of our town's most valuable services: Having our own paramedic unit," said Emminger during Thursday's announcement. "Our paramedics, for the past five decades, have saved tens of thousands of lives, and they are an invaluable asset to our community. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone in our community who hasn't had their services, or doesn't know someone who hasn't had their services. We love our paramedics. Providing first-rate emergency services is at the top of our watch list as a Town Board,"
In 2023, the Town of Tonawanda engaged Fitch & Associates, LLC, a national firm with expertise in emergency services, to conduct a feasibility study to see if it made sense for the town, from both service and financial standpoints, to begin transporting those in need of ambulance service. The study recommended the town launch a fleet of four ambulances and hire 20 EMTs.
It also calls for the hiring of two additional full-time pracademics to complement the 16 full-time, and seven part-time paramedics who will continue to staff paramedic fly cars.
"That study was finalized this past spring, and over the past six months... we have been reviewing and analyzing its findings, and after much discussion, it was determined that this service for our community was much needed," Emminger said.
"Response time, as you can imagine, is very important for our first responders. Whether they'd be police, fire, paramedics or ambulance service, the amount of time it takes for our first responders to arrive can mean life or death, in some situations. Our ambulance corps will ensure that our residents will be receiving the best emergency care they need when they need it the most."
Two of the ambulances will operate 24 hours a day, the third will be in service 12 hours a day, with the fourth serving as a backup.
"Our goal was to get it up-and-running in the first quarter of 2025 with two full-service ambulances, and add two more ambulances later next year. Each ambulance costs approximately $250,000 to fully equipped," Emminger noted.
New York State Assemblyman Bill Conrad also announced Thursday his office has committed $250,000 for the purchase of an ambulance for the town, helping it to achieve the goal of getting two ambulances on the road by February 2025.
"When the supervisor said we were going to do this, I immediately went to work and tried to find something to help them out. Because this is not cheap to start, but it certainly is put together to outlive or work the system, as it were," said Assemblyman Conrad on Thursday. "It's a self-funding system, and it, I think, puts a step towards this agency and its deliverance of services. I'm very proud to be a part of that and deliver that $250,000 grant to the town"
Two town paramedics are state EMT instructors, and two paramedics are being trained as lab instructors, allowing the town to run its own EMT class to build an in-house system.
There will still be times in the town when mutual aid partners will be needed to respond to emergency calls for an ambulance.
"The mission, then and today, is to provide the highest quality care to the citizens of the Town of Tonawanda and the Village of Kenmore. That is our mission going forward," said Paramedic Supervisor Matthew DeRose on Thursday. "A conversation a little over a year ago between the supervisor, Chief Stauffiger, Assistant Chief Fennell and myself has brought us to this point. We all agreed we need to do something to lead, and be the leading public safety agency, the premier public safety agency in the area. We identified the significant need to add to our emergency medical services system, and establish an ambulance transport where it'd worked in conjunction with the paramedics and the police department. By establishing our own transport system, we're going to be an additive solution to the emergency medical services system here in the Town of Tonawanda, and help to alleviate some of the strain that already exists on the system."