MONTICELLO  —  The Sullivan County Legislature approved the execution of a contract with SeniorCare Emergency Medical at their latest meeting on Thursday, June 20. The effort to get to this point was discussed by all nine Sullivan County Legislators as they rejoiced on the big step for the county.

“This is much needed,” said District 6 Legislator and Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Luis Alvarez, a leader of this initiative. “I have been in EMS for 40 years and we have no volunteers. I’m still in the Liberty Fire Company, and we absolutely lack volunteers all the way around.  You can’t wait half an hour for an ambulance to show up at a scene. All you have to do is put the scanner on and listen to how many of these calls are being taken care of by mutual aid by another company.”

Alvarez said that this added service and having a municipal CON will allow for the 9-1-1 center to control everything and dispatch people wherever they need to go at all times. 

“We’re definitely gonna get the service [we need],” said Alvarez.

“All I have to say is, it’s about time,” said District 2 Legislature and Chair Nadia Rajsz. “Thank you very much for all your efforts. Thank you to Luis [Alvarez], Scott Schulte and Alex Rau for doing whatever they did in making this movement for our county. We have heard the concerns of our citizens and our EMS agencies, and we agree that action is needed.”

District 3 Legislator Brian McPhillips said that they made changes to positioning, including a combination of Fire and EMS titles within the 9-1-1 center to provide for what they felt was coming. 

“This isn’t just pulling an EMS service out of thin air,” said the District 3 Legislator. 

He said that they spoke to numerous volunteer ambulance corps and noted that without the volunteers, this would not be attainable. He stated that this is just the first stage of what could be an elaborate safety mechanism that the county is in desperate need of. 

“This comes with the ability to make advancements, whether it be ambulances in the future or additional fly cars,” said Brian McPhillips. “The idea is to come up with centralized locations for these units to be dispatched 24/7, specifically only for treatment in Sullivan County. This is something I ran on and something that I am very proud to work with all nine of you in getting it done.”

“This was a fantastic step forward for the County’s health, welfare and public safety,” said District 1 Legislator Matt McPhillips. “I couldn’t be prouder of the work that was done by this Legislature to make this happen.”

“This shows how the Legislature can work together to make life-changing progress across the County and I am proud to be part of it,” District 4 Legislator Nicholas Salomone said. 

District 5 Legislator Cat Scott thanked Alvarez for his dedication to the issue and the time and effort that he put into it. 

“This is an expense, but it’s also a service,” Scott said. “We are here to serve the community and our community does not necessarily get the service that it deserves. So this EMS is a way of us protecting our community, because minutes do matter.”

Scott mentioned being on the other end of 9-1-1 calls and said that you need people to respond as quickly as possible. 

“It’s not just about loss of life, it’s also that loss of function,” Scott said. “The longer somebody goes without treatment when they’re having a stroke, the more potential they have for loss of function. So this is a really important issue.”

“This is a major expense to the county, but it’s not a burden,” said District 7 Legislator Joe Perrello.  “It’s just an expense that we have to support. There’s budgetary items that we have to take care of and this is one of them.”

District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward noted that there is no way of putting value or a number on saving someone’s life, which backed up Perrello’s comments about it not being a burden but being an expense the county has to be behind, no matter the cost. 

“I am so gratified to help make this happen,” said Ward, “as our hardworking volunteers deserve support and our citizens’ very lives depend on prompt emergency response.”

District 9 Legislator Terry Blosser-Bernardo noted that the resounding support received for engaging a third-party EMS provider for fly car services, evidenced by the majority vote from the EMS Advisory Board, highlights the shared dedication from all parties involved in delivering high-quality emergency medical services to the community.