Last week Town of Montgomery Supervisor Brian Maher announced they had an almost finalized draft of an ambulance contract between them and the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps. The contract includes Walden, and now a trustee has some questions.

A month ago, the Town of Montgomery decided on a joint proposal from the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps and Ambulnz, a private ambulance service based in Newburgh. Ambulnz will provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) services for at least one year since the town ambulance corps currently only provides Basic Life Support (BLS) services. However, they plan to provide ALS services within a year with the help of Amblunz.

Ambulnz came to Newburgh in 2020 and is now headquartered there, but can be found in 26 states, as well as Canada and the United Kingdom to provide care.

Montgomery’s decision came after months of learning about different requests for proposals (RFPs) from ambulance providers. Walden decided to join the ambulance district at this time.

The three year contract will begin in 2023 and end in 2025, with clauses to keep going as long as both sides don’t agree on new terms.

Walden is included in this contract on an intermunicipal agreement between the town and village. Last month Maher stated that the town had budgeted $664,000 for the district if it excluded Walden, or $800,000 if Walden decided to opt in. Since Walden waited to join the ambulance district, they technically opted in for 2024. However, Montgomery Town Attorney William Frank explained that they will be paying $136,000 to receive ambulance services for the 2023 year.

Although taxes will be raised by the budgeted $800,000, the drafted contract is worth $785,000. “The amount that the ambulance corps has budgeted receiving from the town is $785,000 and that is the number that will be in our contract. That will allow “potentially” for 15k per year to be put away in surplus,” said Maher in an email.

In 2023, Maher notes that $800,000 will come from the tax district and the onetime payment from Walden of $136,000. In 2024, the $800,000 will come from the tax district alone. “The cost per property owner will not go up with the addition of Walden,” noted Maher.

Maher further explained they never officially accepted the RFP document, but used it to gather information to create a contract. He noted they are very much alike, but couldn’t speak to specific similarities.

“The contract itself mirrors much of the thoughts of the RFP, but together along with the ambulance corps, we discussed what made sense in the RFP and what did not and then formed a contract that was in the best interest of the residents we are going to serve,” Maher commented.

Walden Trustee Becky Pearson questioned this, as she assumed everything had to do with the RFPs since they discussed it for so long.

“They’re really just going into a contract where they don’t even deal with the RFP,” said Pearson, “I’d like to read that and see what’s going on.”

Village of Walden Attorney David Donovan explained he’s been working with the town on this.

As of December 27, the contract isn’t signed, but Maher is hoping to have it done this week.