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Get breaking local By Sean Gorman The Journal News August 17, 2008 news as it happens from LoHud.com. Print this pageE-mail this article Enter your phone number below: Text Size: Normal | Large | Larger

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OSSINING - The Ossining Volunteer Ambulance Corps wants to create a new taxing district to pay for full- » Modify existing time staff members to help fill shifts. alerts

» 4INFO | Get this tool The town is holding an information session Wednesday about the proposal to create the district, which

would include residents in the village of Ossining as well as the unincorporated part of the town. More News headlines http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080817/NEWS02/808170346/-1/newsfront (1 of 4) [8/17/2008 7:14:54 PM] Ossining says tax district needed to pay for ambulance service | lohud.com | The Journal News The corps, which has been wrestling with ballooning budget shortfalls, has been ● Scarsdale Teen Center receives $35G grant from county

supplementing its volunteer force by paying some paramedics and emergency medical technicians on an ● Guided walk leads to fun

hourly basis to work shifts, said Sam Lubin, the corps' operations manager. ● Floodwater closes Nanuet swimming pool

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"We have an extremely active contingent of volunteers," said Lubin, a paid official who also serves as a ● Greenburgh cable show resurrected

paramedic. "We can't do it with them alone. ... We need to supplement the volunteers." Latest headlines

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The new district would pay four paramedics and three emergency medical technicians to work full time. ● Disabled vehicle moved from TZ Bridge

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shortfalls that have come amid rising costs and a drop in insurance reimbursements the corps receives for ● Storm-stunned Hudson Valley farmers to get federal aid

its services.

Town Supervisor Martha Dodge said the costs of funding the full-time personnel would be split between

Ossining and another ambulance district that New Castle officials are considering creating for residents who

live in the west end of that town. Residents there also receive services from the Ossining ambulance corps.

The corps, which Lubin said has about 30 or 40 active volunteers, is expected to spend just over $700,000

this year. That figure includes a $122,000 deficit.

In a chronology sent to town and village officials several months ago, Lubin wrote that the corps will face a

deficit of nearly $400,000 in 2009 without the tax district.

"We're in trouble," Lubin said Friday. "We definitely need the community's help."

He estimated that ambulance taxes would cost the average homeowner about $1 a week.

http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080817/NEWS02/808170346/-1/newsfront (2 of 4) [8/17/2008 7:14:54 PM] Ossining says tax district needed to pay for ambulance service | lohud.com | The Journal News Lubin wrote in his chronology that the corps had to start paying paramedics on an hourly basis in the mid-

1990s. Since then, the pool of volunteer paramedics shrank as call volume grew, he wrote.

More calls meant the corps had to bring in additional EMTs paid on a hourly basis. Meanwhile, greater

training requirements led to a smaller pool of paramedics, so the corps has to pay better, he wrote.

During a 10- to 15-minute telephone interview Friday, Lubin noted that just during the span of the

conversation, the corps had been dispatched to two calls.

In 2007, it handled about 1,880 calls, and this year it is expected to respond to more than 2,000, Lubin said.

Dodge said the Ossining Town Board has been supportive of creating the new district.

"We are all on board for trying to do something that is not going to be a huge cost to our taxpayers, but will

continue to provide the emergency services that anybody may need," Dodge said.

Even with the full-time additions, Lubin noted that the corps - which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this

year - would remain a mostly volunteer agency.

He also said that if the department were to go to an entire full-time staff, the cost to run it would be much

greater.

To create the district in Ossining, the village board must pass a resolution stating that it wants to become

part of the district, and then the Town Board must vote to start it, said Mayor William Hanauer.

"There would never be any breach in service, any gap in service," Hanauer said.

The district is subject to permissive referendum, meaning that if residents gather the required number of http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080817/NEWS02/808170346/-1/newsfront (3 of 4) [8/17/2008 7:14:54 PM] Ossining says tax district needed to pay for ambulance service | lohud.com | The Journal News

signatures, a measure could be placed on the ballot allowing them to vote on whether the district should be

created.

Wednesday's meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the Joseph G. Caputo Center, 95 Broadway.

Reach Sean Gorman at [email protected] or 914-666-6481.

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