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Plattekill board hears case for ambulance district as officials warn county subsidy may not continue
Summary
Ulster County EMS officials told the Town of Plattekill that volunteer ambulance coverage has declined and recommended creating a town ambulance district funded by a roughly $650,000 annual levy (about $0.98 per $1,000 assessed value) offset in part by billing revenue; the board kept the public hearing open for two weeks of written comments.
Town officials and county emergency services staff told residents on Tuesday that Plattekill’s current, volunteer‑heavy ambulance system is no longer reliably meeting demand and that a town ambulance district would create a coordinated, paid service intended to reduce multihour waits for emergency transport.
Edward Erickson, Ulster County commissioner of emergency services, told the board the county has documented extended response times in parts of town and that "we're seeing, you know, 20 plus minutes. There's times that we've seen hour waits." Erickson said the county has been testing shared‑service models in neighboring municipalities and proposed a town taxing district to create "elasticity" across providers and guarantee more consistent coverage.
County counsel and consultant Terry Hennigan described how an ambulance district would operate as a separate taxing district and said, "It's called an ambulance district. It's a taxing district." Hennigan and other presenters said the district would pay for the "cost of readiness" — staffing, vehicles and contracts with ALS providers — rather than relying on an increasingly thin supply of volunteers.
Rich Miller, director of the county’s EMS division, said billing for ambulance transports (Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers) is required for federal purposes and helps reduce the tax levy that would otherwise be needed to sustain services. Miller also said the county has used one‑time stabilization funding and multi‑year contracts with a small set of ALS providers (named in prior county contracts) to shore up coverage while towns consider long‑term options.
Presenters said the town’s share of the proposed first‑year tax levy would be about $650,000, which the county estimated would amount to roughly $0.98 per $1,000 of assessed value (commonly described in public comments as about $100 per $100,000 of assessed value). Officials characterized the numbers as projections that depend on final call volume and billing revenue; presenters also cited an operating benchmark of roughly $1.3 million for a single ALS ambulance and said multiple units and shared resources would be scheduled based on regional need and call data.
Local fire chiefs and residents described mounting operational strain. The Modena chief said the district has seen call volumes rise for years and that local volunteer capacity has fallen sharply; one chief said local response rates had fallen to about 25 percent in recent reporting, leaving hundreds of calls to be filled by distant or contracted providers. Roy Terwilliger, a local fire commissioner, recounted a recent cardiac arrest in his family and credited the coordinated system for a rapid ALS response: "He's alive," Terwilliger told the board, calling the present model "seamless."
Residents raised financing and fairness questions: several asked whether the town could instead reallocate existing fire or police funds; officials replied that fire tax allocations to EMS are small in many districts and that the ambulance‑transport cost structure (staffing, vehicle replacement and insurance) would make a town‑wide special district the most efficient option. Presenters said the county has set aside roughly $4.9 million for EMS stabilization; staff said $2.0 million was distributed to local BLS agencies and about $2.7 million was used to contract temporarily with ALS providers, but the county cautioned that subsidy beyond 2026 is not guaranteed.
The town board closed the oral portion of the hearing but voted to keep the public record open for written comments for two weeks so staff can review feedback and refine fiscal projections before any formal vote on forming a district.
What happens next: The hearing record will remain open for two weeks for written comments. The board said staff will return with more detailed budget projections, a draft taxing levy and implementation mechanics for further public review.
Sources: Ulster County EMS staff (Edward Erickson; Rich Miller), county counsel/consultant (Terry Hennigan), local fire chiefs and resident testimony at the Plattekill town board public hearing.
