Lockport, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was a night shrouded in mystery and confusion, but the City of Lockport's Common Council eventually reached a solution to addressing the expiring Twin City Ambulance contracts in the city.
An emergency council meeting was originally set in the council chambers following last week's meeting for 6:00 p.m. with public comment on Monday night to address what the City of Lockport will do to service their ambulance needs once the city's contract with Twin City Ambulance expires on Jan. 31st.
The meeting was pushed to 6:30. At around fifteen minutes past that time, a representative came out saying that the council, including the mayor, were currently in executive session litigating the issue, trying to resolve something that citizens believe should've been discussed in front of the public, instead of behind closed doors.
At around 7:15, Lockport Mayor Michelle Roman came out with the council, announcing there will be no public comment, no negativity and they are voting tonight on a solution.
The solution is their resolution #2, which gives ambulatory services back to the fire department, with as needed assistance from Twin City Ambulance.
"What passed is we'll be allowing the fire department to put two ambulances on the road. This will greatly add to the ambulance shortage that not only Lockport, Niagara County, but all of Western New York have. This keeps our residents safe. This was the right decision and I want to thank my colleagues, because this was a very challenging decision. There were a lot of fiscal issues to talk about and in the end, we did the right thing and we are going back into the ambulance business," says Paul Beakman, Lockport Common Council President.
Terry Clark, President of Twin City Ambulance added, "We are still going to have a presence in the area. We have other entities that are looking to use our service. We've got a local hospital, we've got several volunteer fire companies. So we'll definitely have a presence in this area. Essentially, the change is going to be we will not be the primary provider of ambulance service in the city going forward."
With staffing being a serious issue post-COVID, Clark hopes to get some help from the state level to help get more paramedics and emergency response personnel trained so they can continue to effectively service areas of Western New York.
There was some confusion as to how they votes were laid out, but the end result is that three council members voted in favor, two voted no and one abstained, therefore leaving the mayor the deciding vote of yes.
"I'm very happy that the city made the right decision to return the ambulances to the city of Lockport putting all of these men and women upstairs back on the streets to be able to provide care and transport to the final destination hospital," says Chris McClure, Fire Chief at Lockport South Fire Department.
"The resources are here. We have the largest paramedic pool in Western New York and with them not taking patients to the hospital and being able to build that revenue for the city... this is the right decision to get those people back into the pool of people that can transport patients to the hospital and let up on some of the other agencies that are around. Nothing against commercial agencies whatsoever, but there's just not as many providers available for those for those agencies to provide the care that was needed to continue commercial care in Lockport," the chief added.
Council President Beakman says that they hope to get the services up and running in less than two months, once the get the proper certification, stretchers and other new equipment.
