North East unveils new ambulance services contract

North East unveils new ambulance services contract
Northern Dutchess Paramedics Station 2 is located just south of the village of Millerton on Route 22.
Photo by Nathan Miller

MILLERTON — During a board meeting on Thursday, Dec. 12, the North East Town Board discussed the new emergency medical service contract with Northern Dutchess Paramedics, building department fee schedule changes, and a dispute between neighbors.

With respect to emergency services, the Town of North East, Dover and Amenia will be entering into a new three-year contract with EMS provider Northern Dutchess Paramedics. The three towns previously had a five-year legal agreement with the same provider that will expire on Tuesday, Dec. 31.

As part of the agreement, the Town of North East will receive ambulance services starting at $511,558 for 2025. The cost will increase to $696,345 for 2026, and will rise to $746,345 by 2027. In the previous contract Northern Dutchess Paramedics had increased their service fees by 2% each year.

While costs are concerning, the length of the contract is flexible. “We can terminate it at any time,” said Warren Replansky, the town’s attorney. “We’re not bound for the increases for next year and the year after. We’re hoping that something will happen in the interim, if there’s some relief. It’s a real problem that all municipalities are suffering from … the cost of ambulance service to communities has skyrocketed, part of it due to COVID, part of it due to inflation.”

The town negotiated with Northern Dutchess Paramedics over the originally stated cost of services, which would have started at $646,345 and increased its budget by 71% compared to the EMS budget during 2024.

“I certainly don’t want to be the one board member to say we won’t have an ambulance service because you just don’t want that to happen,” said Councilman Ralph Fedele, who pointed out North East’s unique needs. “A city like Poughkeepsie that has a high population and a lot of turnover, they don’t have the problems that we have,” he said. “The state has got to realize that, and there has to be some help coming. There has to be because it isn’t fair for a town like ours to start taking money out of our reserves.”

Another item discussed during the meeting centered on the approval of changes to the Town of North East building department fee schedule, which would have been effective beginning Wednesday, Jan. 1. It has been tabled until the next town board meeting.
“I don’t agree with increasing the burden of any resident to increase the fee of $25 to $60 because, personally, I’d like to encourage folks to make improvements or to build and there’s things in this about improvements to food trucks, and we don’t have food trucks in the town of North East,” said councilwoman Megan Winkler, “For those reasons, at this moment in time, I can’t support an increase.”

Two concerned residents on Cooper Road also attended the meeting with concerns regarding an illegal dwelling in the area during the public comment portion of the meeting. In addition to their comments, a brief video was played which apparently recorded an altercation with some of the involved parties.

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less