Defunct rescue squad donates $78K to town

RENSSELAERVILLE — More than a year since it closed, the building that once housed the Rensselaerville Volunteer Ambulance squad was transferred to the town of Rensselaerville, according to town attorney Tom Fallati.

Fallati announced at the Jan. 10 town board meeting that the paperwork had been finalized for the transfer, with the deed submitted to the Albany County Clerk’s Office. He later told The Enterprise that the transfer included submitting $77,877.06 from the former rescue squad’s bank accounts to the town.

The building, which has two ambulance bays and is located at 380 Fox Creek Road, was built in the early 2000s. The 29 acres of property it sits on includes Rensselaerville’s town hall and highway garage, and is valued at $526,500, according to the town assessment rolls.

Councilman Brian Wood, who oversaw the transition before he was on the board as Captain of the Albany County Sheriff’s Emergency Medical Services Division, told The Enterprise this week that the building was given to the town for the sole purpose of being a public safety building.

The Albany County Sheriff’s Emergency Medical Services Division keeps its ambulance there at times, he said, and sheriff’s deputies will use it “kind of like a satellite office.” The three fire departments in Rensselaerville also use the building as a staging area, he said, and it has been used by organizations like the American Red Cross to host a blood drive.

The building never had a mortgage after Rensselaerville Volunteer Ambulance bought it with cash, said Wood, but the town does pay the utility bills.

More Hilltowns News

  • The two towns — one rural, one suburban — will now essentially share affordable housing credits so that Guilderland can use Knox’s typically unused credits to satisfy its large waiting list, while Knox is still able to claim them for its own residents as needed. 

  • A driver crashed into a Rensselaerville home early Sunday morning, causing it to go up in flames. The driver and an off-duty paramedic who assisted in the rescue both suffered only minor injuries while the occupants of the home were uninjured. 

  • As Berne-Knox-Westerlo Superintendent Timothy Mundell laid out the district’s progress toward its next budget while the district waits on lawmakers to finalize a state budget, conversation centered around one of the few things the district can control at this point — whether or not to go ahead with its annual bus purchase.

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