by Kristina Gabalski
January 2012 will go down as a history-making month for the Brockport Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Inc.
On January 12, the Ambulance Corps celebrated its 50th anniversary, and at its regular meeting January 24, members of the Brockport Village Board unanimously voted to approve and authorize an agreement which includes the transfer of its New York State Department of Health Ambulance Service Certificate (“operating certificate”) to the Corps, making it independent of the village.
Many Brockport Ambulance Corps members attended the January 24 meeting and called the transfer of ownership a “milestone.”
Brockport Ambulance President David Rice said now the Corps only needs the “stamp of approval” from the State Health Department. “It’s the final piece of the puzzle,” he said of the effort to establish the Ambulance Corps as an independent EMS agency.
Ambulance Corps member Christopher Martin said the agreement will allow for the “continuation of 50 years of service by this community of volunteers.”
“This was a group effort,” David Rice noted of the many months of meetings and negotiations which went into finalizing the agreement. “Everybody on the committee added something to this.”
He commended Corps members who have worked diligently over the past year continuing to take calls day and night allowing other Ambulance Corps members to focus on reaching an agreement and obtaining all the necessary approvals.
Under the agreement, the Brockport Volunteer Ambulance Corps will provide ambulance service to the Village of Brockport. “We hopefully will contract with the Brockport Fire District,” Christopher Martin said.
David Rice explained that the newly created fire district and the Ambulance Corps’ independence from the village will have a positive impact on emergency fire and medical services provided to the community by separating them from politics.
It will allow the Fire Department and Ambulance Corps to “rise above the muck,” he said.
The Ambulance Corps has had no hidden agenda in the process of becoming independent, Christopher Martin said. “It’s stepping up to serve out of love for the community,” he said of the Corps, whose goal is: “to come when called.”
According to the Emergency Medical Services Agreement, “The Brockport Volunteer Ambulance Corps (BVAC) shall pay the Village the sum of $55,000 to be held in escrow by counsel on behalf of the Village pending the successful transfer of the Village’s Operating Certificate to the Corps, and the Corps will provide services … to the Village and in return, the Village will allow all third party billing money received subsequent to the Operating Certificate transfer to be received directly by the Corps.”
Under the agreement, the Village also authorizes the Corps, “either directly or through a billing service agency contracted by the Corps, to establish and collect fees or charges for services rendered by the Corps. Such fees or charges may be billed directly to the user’s insurance carrier, in such instances that the user’s insurance contract provides for such direct payment as long as a copy of said bill is also sent to the user.”
The Village will provide, at a monthly rate of $1.00, the facility, or specified portions thereof, located at 38 Market Street, for the Corps to occupy for the purposes of providing EMS, the agreement states.
The agreement also gives sole authority and control to the Corps’ Board of Directors over the management of the Corps’ operations, assets, revenues and expenditures and transfers to the Corps ownership and legal title to emergency vehicles and all equipment and supplies currently in the possession of the Corps.
The term of the agreement begins February 1, 2012 and expires January 31, 2017. It will be automatically renewed for an additional five years at that time unless either party notifies the other in writing on or before August 20, 2016, that it has decided not to renew or wishes to renegotiate.
Mayor Connie Castaneda thanked the Ambulance Corps for assisting “the Village in accomplishing this goal. We wish them the best of luck,” she said.
