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Northern Dutchess Paramedics Station Two is a few miles south of Millerton on Route 22. The ambulance averages less than one call per day in the town of North East.
MILLERTON — Northern Dutchess Paramedics’ (NDP) five-year contract with the Town of North East, Dover and Amenia is coming to an end in December.
The new proposed contract between the Town of North East and NDP increased by 71.5%. Over the past five years NDP increased its payments by two percent annually, making the new proposal a significant increase.
“With its population of around 3,000 people, the Town of North East has less than one call per day for ambulance service,” Chris Kennan, the town supervisor, said, “Which makes it very expensive for us and a big piece of the Town’s annual budget.”
NDP shared its contract with the Towns of North East, Amenia and Dover. Under the contract, an ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulance must be stationed in each of the three towns.
A possible 70% increase in service pricing would impose expenses on residents, Kennan said, increasing property taxes at an “unacceptable” rate. According to Kennan, every municipality in Dutchess County is dealing with similar EMS problems. This calendar year the Town is spending $376,858 on EMS services, which is about 10.5% of the Town’s budget. NDP has requested $646,300 for their services next year.
“I’ve been in the rescue service for 37 years now as a fireman. We need that and it is the cost of doing business,” Richard Yeno, the Town of Dover’s Supervisor, said. “The problem is it’s a substantial hit, a 70 plus percent increase is a major hit to the budget. And it will make taxes go up but my people will have an ambulance service in place Jan. 1, 2025.”
Both Kennan and Yeno have expressed the importance of a future meeting with NDP to discuss logistics and as an attempt to lower their previous approach.
“We’re going to do our due diligence, shop it where we can shop it, negotiate where we can negotiate, such as NDP,” Yeno said. “We do have a future meeting planned with them. We are back on the table and both parties agreed that this needs to come to another serious discussion. So hopefully it’ll get better.”
According to Kennan, the emergency medical services (EMS) crisis is not unique to North East, Amenia and Dover. “It is a problem for smaller, less-populated towns across New York State and around the country,” Kennan said. “Put very simply, the larger the population, the more customers the EMS providers have to spread the costs around. We have to remember that we are paying for a fully-staffed ambulance sitting in our town around the clock.”
Last year, the Town of North East had 256 calls for EMS services, which is less than one call a day, leaving the ambulance sitting without callsfor long stretches. The town of Dover has roughly 8,400 residents and is dealing with a similar, over 70%, increase in its EMS service budget.
“The problem is in five years, the prices of everything has gone up. The cost of wages has gone up to be competitive. They need to increase their worker’s wages,” Yeno said. “I understand that, and that’s where we’re at.
“My people deserve this service. They need this service,” Yeno said. “And I will find a way to provide this service. I won’t go backward. I will maintain what we were receiving in service, and nothing but up.”
As of Sunday, Oct. 13, NDP has not responded to requests for comment from the Millerton News.
MILLERTON — The Village of Millerton picked a contractor to begin Phase II of the Eddie Collins Memorial Park construction.
During the Village Trustees Meeting Monday, Oct. 7, the contractor LaBella was chosen to proceed with the park’s new raising. Bidding for professional services opened on Thursday, Sept. 26 and the Village received three different proposals.
The firms’ offers ranged from $518,500 to $705,500 for their services during Phase II. According to the Village’s Mayor, Jenn Najdek, LaBella happened to be the lowest bidder but money was not the only factor. Board members also considered who has been working with the Village.
LaBella was the prime contractor to help complete Phase I of the Eddie Collins Memorial Park project. The company and the Village worked together to create a master plan to refurbish the space.
Phase I enhancements focused on revamping the playground, a natural soccer field, basketball courts, little league field, seating areas, parking and a new entryway. According to LaBella’s website, “Enhancements included accessible and creative surfacing, dynamic pathways, existing equipment rehabilitation, installation of new equipment, shade trees, rain gardens, green infrastructure, and various site furnishings.”
LaBella will be assisting the Village in the new design for Phase II which includes a 3,600 square foot pool house and community room and a 5-lane Olympic short course swimming pool. The Village is hoping to begin construction by spring 2025 and complete the project within six to eight months after.
MILLERTON — The Town of North East held a board meeting Thursday, Oct. 10, discussing a fire department request to use space in the new garage while they are resurfacing the floors in the firehouse.
The department originally asked to use the old highway garage on South Center Street, however, because the fire engines are too large they were unable to fit.
“The nice thing is that they fit beautifully in the new highway garage,” Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said. “I think this is one of the very good things that happens in this county, which is that towns can work together and share equipment that no town would need full time. And that’s about what you’ve got going on up there. It is good to see that the town is using one of its facilities to help out one of our local entities.”
The Community Revitalization Council passed a draft of neighboring towns about their housing opportunities, with opportunities that could come to the Town of North East.
“Hopefully we can share that in the very near future, but really positive opportunities that will be coming,” councilwoman Megan Winkler said. “We have an opportunity to as towns, joining together for a grant for the plus one grant program, which helps folks be able to build accessory dwelling units. So these are to renovate existing structures, or convert or build, and the grants go up to $175,000 so we as municipalities can put in a request to be able to be the administrators.”
A small survey was sent out to hear from residents and received positive interest. The survey was posted online and residents were notified by postcards, receiving feedback from about 50 people.
“There’s some buildings potentially going up right around us that will be apartments and townhouses for rent and for sale,” Winkler said, “We tried to do a survey of the town for people who had trouble getting on the internet…Many people have buildings with space in the building that is not being used, or they have a garage with which could have an apartment over it, and this could be income.”
The town has been in contact with the county to discuss the removal of snow and ice for some of the roads located in the Town of North East, but are considered Dutchess County roads.
“There are some roads in our town which are county roads, which are a long way for the county to come out and plow, and they have proposed a reimbursement to the town for us to take care of some of these roads,” Kennan said. “We have done this now for quite a number of years. I think from the standpoint of the town, it’s been a very beneficial arrangement.”
Kennan met with the county executive last week to discuss a handful of ideas, mainly including the emergency medical services and the ambulance contract.
“We learned a few days after that meeting that the commissioner of emergency response, Dan Smith, had resigned and so that’s too bad for what we are trying to do because that is the department which oversees emergency response.”
Northern Dutchess Paramedics have proposed an increase of over 70% for their EMS services. During their five-year contract the town paid about $376,000, with a new pitch of around $646,000.
“We have looked at ways this would create a really difficult and really unsupportable increase in taxes in the town and particularly in the village,” said Kennan. “We still are waiting to see what the county may be able to do to help us with this.”
“This is a burning EMS crisis around the county and around the state, we’re not in a unique situation,” Chris Drago, County Legislator, said, “The budget of the county is $601 million, a lot of money, and one of the things I see as my job is to be an advocate, for our towns and the district I represent…There’s been work done to really try to see where we can solve this critical issue.”
There will be a public hearing for the town’s budget on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m.
Town Board members also heard new concerns about pipeline construction project.
Emily Skydell, Hudson Valley Senior Organizer for Food and Water Watch, attended the town board meeting via Zoom to share what she said were threats of methane emissions from the Iroquois pipeline Corp.
“The Iroquois pipeline corporation has proposed a dangerous project that they call expansion by compression and, if it’s approved, Iroquois will substantially increase in the risk of leakage in fires and explosions, while also increasing the pollution in communities that live near the compressors,” said Skydell, “Here in New York, we can stop the expansion of these pipelines and power plants and start to really invest in renewable energy and renewable energy sources.”
The Iroquois pipeline is planning on creating compressor stations so that gas is able to push through Long Island and New York City. The company is not proposing more gas to be delivered to the Northeast Dutchess County region.
“It’s a proposal that allows more gas to get pushed through an existing, 30-year-old pipeline,” Skydell said. Skydell said there are many risks associated with older pipelines, especially when trying to do an expansion.
AMENIA — During Webutuck’s Board of Education meeting on Monday, Oct. 7, board members detailed the fiscal challenges of feeding students.
“The cafeteria fund and our school lunch program has really always ran into deficit,” Webutuck School Business Administrator Robert Farrier said. “Schools that generally are in the positive have a much more robust a la carte, where students are able to buy more things above their normal lunch. We don’t have that here.”
Webutuck follows the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, giving the district serving sizes, calorie count and nutritional guidelines to follow. The law also mandates that the student must select a fruit or vegetable to go with their meal, or the student must pay for each item on their tray. Milk is the drink provided in the nutritional guidelines, and can not be replaced with another drink the student prefers. However, they may purchase another drink if desired.
“Once we went to the free and reduced, where all students get free lunch and breakfast, it has helped our lunch program,” Farrier said. “We generally send $150,000 from the general fund to the cafeteria fund. We did that, and we probably didn’t need to send as much as we did, but we are starting to get to a point where we’re going to break even. Our goal is to keep building up the lunch program.”
Breakfast and lunch are served every day for free when students provide their assigned ID numbers and have filled out an economic survey for the school year. Snacks and a la carte items from the cafeteria are not included in the lunch program, and the student must have money in their account or with them to purchase those kinds of food.
“I know no one likes to have rising prices, but, you know, our food costs have gone up through the roof,” Farrier said. “Orange juice has tripled in price from the start of school. We don’t increase prices throughout the year, we just go with the flow.”
According to Feeding America, in 2018 the child food insecure population in Dutchess County was 8,050, which is about 14.1%. Nearly one in six children in the United States faced food insecurity in 2021, and currently 58% of New York state’s population is below the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) threshold.
“Our ultimate goal is to feed as many students,” said Farrier. “We don’t want them to go home hungry.”
