Message from Supervisor Herrington

A MESSAGE FROM SUPERVISOR HERRINGTON........

Dear Friends,

As those of you who have the time and inclination to closely monitor the workings of your Town government already know, as of January 1, 2026, we now have dedicated ambulance service in the Town of Brunswick.   By “dedicated”, I mean having fully-staffed and equipped ambulances housed in Brunswick, ready to be deployed within the Town as needed to meet the emergency medical needs and transports of Town residents and visitors.

            As you may know, while towns are required to provide for fire protection services, they are not required to provide ambulance service within their borders. However, towns may do so, and under Article 30 of the NYS Public Health Law, any municipality may operate an ambulance service upon obtaining required State approvals. While the establishment of a dedicated Ambulance Service in the Town of Brunswick is something that had been under discussion, and consideration, for a good number of years, we on the Town Board decided, early in 2025, to pursue this option by taking the necessary steps, both legal and practical, to make it a reality as of January 1, 2026.  To assist us in looking into the various options available to provide a dedicated ambulance service in Brunswick, we arranged to have a Request for Information sent to the eight (8) existing ambulance service providers which border Brunswick, and the two (2) providers which then had ambulance operating authority in Brunswick, asking specific questions and seeking input and information as to the anticipated required service levels, and approximate costs, which would be associated with establishing a dedicated ambulance service in Brunswick.  We received a great deal of useful information through this process and quickly determined that it would be financially prohibitive and impractical for the Town to start its own ambulance service from “scratch”, especially given our goal to have the service in place essentially within a year’s time.  That would have required hiring paramedics and other EMS staff, which are always in short supply these days, as well as administrative and support employees, etc., constructing or leasing buildings to house ambulances and quarter EMS staff awaiting ambulance deployment, and locating and purchasing ambulances to serve Brunswick.  Based upon the information we compiled, we estimated that we would need to come up with approximately $2,000,000.00 for initial startup costs and another $1,000,000.00 annually to operate the service, given current costs.   We therefore concluded that our most expeditious path forward would be for the Town to establish an ambulance special taxing district in accordance with Article 12-A of the Town Law, encompassing the entire Town, which would provide ongoing additional tax revenue, by assessing the same on all of the property owners within the district (in this case, the entire town) in the same manner as other town charges, on an annual basis, based upon the assessed values of the individual parcels.  That tax revenue, when coupled with payments or reimbursements for patient medical care and transports received from Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers, or self-payers, could then be used to contract with an existing and lawfully operating ambulance service corporation, association or organization to provide Brunswick with the ambulances, staffing, and support services, and facilities, to the extent required for its dedicated ambulance service needs. 

            In order for the Town to lawfully operate a dedicated town ambulance service by contracting with an existing and operating ambulance service corporation, association or organization to provide Brunswick with the necessary ambulances, staffing, support services and facilities, we first needed to apply to the NYS Department of Health for a Municipal Certificate of  Need (a/k/a “Muni-CON”), which is essentially a determination of public need for the municipal ambulance service being proposed, which, if approved, then results in the issuance of a certificate of operating authority.  By obtaining its own Certificate of Need, the Town would be free to contract with any existing ambulance service organization or entity to provide the necessary ambulance services in Brunswick.  We engaged Warren Hayashi, M.D., to assist us in the process and serve as our Ambulance Service Medical Director.  On February 13, 2025, the Town Board adopted a Resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the NYS Department of Health for a Municipal Certificate of Need and Operating Certificate for a dedicated Town Ambulance Service.

In order to move forward with the formation of the ambulance special taxing district, the Town had to comply with the procedures set forth in Article 12-A of the Town Law, including the preparation of a Map, Plan, and Report, which set forth, among other things,  a description of the proposed improvements (i.e., the dedicated ambulance service), the anticipated cost of the proposed dedicated ambulance service, including the anticipated annual cost to a typical or average home in the Town, and the manner in which the improvements would be provided and funded.  The Map, Plan, and Report was completed by early June, 2025, with the assistance and cooperation of staff from various Town Departments. It specified, among other things, that the proposed funds to be raised by the ambulance special district tax in 2026 would be $875,000.00, and that the additional tax on an average or typical property would be approximately $150.00.  On July 9, 2025, the Town Board conducted a statutorily required public hearing to consider the Map, Plan, and Report, and the matter of the whether the proposed ambulance special taxing district should be established.  Members of the public who spoke at the public hearing were overwhelmingly in favor of the establishment of the Ambulance Special Taxing District.  On August 14, 2025, the Town Board adopted a Resolution making the findings required by law and establishing the Ambulance Special Taxing District.  

Having established the Ambulance Special Taxing District, the next order of business was to prepare and issue a detailed and comprehensive Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking written proposals from existing and operating ambulance services to provide the ambulances, equipment, facilities, and personnel necessary to operate the dedicated ambulance services in Brunswick, under the terms of a written contract between the Town and the party submitting the proposal ultimately accepted by the Town.  The RFP was issued in mid-September, 2025.  Without getting into all of the details and specifications set forth in the RFP , the key specifications were that the Town would require that a minimum of two (2) ambulances, each equipped and staffed at the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Paramedic Level be provided by the successful contractor and made available for deployment seven days per week, during the daytime hours (0600 hours to 1800 hours),  and at least one (1) ambulance equipped and staffed at the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Paramedic Level be provided and made available for deployment seven days per week during the nighttime hours (1800 hours – 0600 hours).  Additionally, the Town would require that the all of the ambulances would be maintained, housed, and stationed, together with appropriate quarters for the EMT staff, within the limits of the Town of Brunswick, at the expense of the successful contractor. 

With the establishment of the ambulance special taxing district complete, and after issuing the RFP for the provision of the dedicated ambulance services, the Town moved forward on its application to the NYS Department of Health seeking a Municipal Certificate of Need and operating certificate for its dedicated ambulance service.  The application was submitted on November 14, 2025, and the Municipal Certificate of Need and operating authority was issued on December 8, 2025.

In response to its RFP, the Town received and carefully evaluated proposals submitted by two (2) prospective providers of the dedicated ambulance services sought by the Town.  On December 10, 2025, the Town Board adopted a Resolution determining that the proposal for dedicated ambulance services submitted by the North Greenbush Ambulance Assoc., Inc., was best suited to meet the needs of the Town of Brunswick and its residents, and authorized the negotiation of a contract between the Town and the North Greenbush Ambulance Assoc., Inc., incorporating the terms of the RFP and the accepted proposal.   On December 30, 2025, the Town Board approved the final terms of a five (5) year contract negotiated between the Town and the North Greenbush Ambulance Assoc., Inc., in accordance with the RFP and the accepted proposal, and authorized its execution.

Once the Town Board accepted the proposal of the North Greenbush Ambulance Assoc., Inc., on December 10, 2025, we began working with them to make suitable temporary arrangements for our dedicated ambulance service until a suitable facility could be constructed or obtained in Brunswick to house the ambulances and quarter the EMT staff.  By December 12, 2025, the North Greenbush Ambulance Assoc., Inc, had already began responding to emergency ambulance calls in Brunswick on a 24-7 basis, by making temporary arrangements with the Center Brunswick Fire Company to use its facilities.  On that same date, Sand Lake Ambulance began assisting in the transition by providing ambulance coverage in Brunswick daily from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, while being temporarily based at the Eagle Mills Fire Station. That lasted until January 1, 2026, when North Greenbush Ambulance stepped in and undertook providing the temporary ambulance coverage from the Eagle Mills Fire Station during the daytime hours in addition to its 24-7 coverage from its temporary base at the Center Brunswick Fire House.  On February 4, 2026, North Greenbush Ambulance announced that they had moved into their new base in the Town of Brunswick, located at Del Signore Properties, NY Routes 2 & 278.  It was truly gratifying to see all of our Public Safety partners working cooperatively to meet the public need, and we sincerely appreciate their efforts to ease the transition.  All of these arrangements are working well and emergency response times in Brunswick have been very encouraging.  And, of course, we are pleased and grateful that North Greenbush Ambulance acted so expeditiously in establishing its permanent base in Brunswick for ambulances, quarters, and other related facilities, as required by the contract.

To say the very least, we are delighted to now have dedicated ambulance service in Brunswick.  All of our ambulance calls are and will be responded to by Advanced Life Support (ALS) Paramedic Level equipment and personnel, as opposed to Basic Life Support (BLS).  This can make a world of difference in emergency calls involving heart attacks, strokes, respiratory difficulties, just to name a few.  By having our ambulances physically located in Brunswick, we are anticipating that response times to emergency calls will be excellent.  We are also pleased that the “Brunswick dedicated ambulances” will add to the total number of ambulances available in our region to respond to mutual aid calls from neighboring municipalities in the event of large-scale disasters, or when their own facilities are temporarily over-extended.   

I also wanted to mention that we managed to produce most of the “paperwork” required to complete this undertaking “in house”, which is unusual in the formation of special districts, where professionals requiring compensation are normally involved. We were fortunate enough to have Councilman Mark Balistreri as a resource. Mark’s background and career is in Public Safety, and being a State-certified EMT, he brings a unique perspective to this subject matter.  He was able to use his knowledge and contacts to put together a lot of the required documentation mentioned above, such as the Map, Plan, and Report, the RFP and the Ambulance Services Agreement. This saved us a great deal of taxpayer money and reduced the cost of establishing the special district, thereby also reducing the amount that needed to be raised by the special district tax.

Finally, I want to extend our sincere appreciation to all of Brunswick’s “public safety partners”, i.e., our fire companies, law enforcement agencies, and ambulance service providers, our “first responders”, who worked cooperatively over the past eighteen (18) months with Councilman Mark Balistreri and Councilman Mark Cipperly, who took the lead on this project for the Town, to keep this vital endeavor moving forward and make dedicated ambulance service in the Town of Brunswick a reality. 

Philip H. Herrington

Supervisor