VOORHEESVILLE — Charging patients for ambulance rides, which was recently voted down by volunteer members of the ambulance squad, is under consideration again.

The major reason that the ambulance squad decided against a revenue recovery plan the last time it came up, in 2005, was because it’s a volunteer squad and charging people for their services didn’t seem right, said Lawrence Pakenas, captain of the ambulance squad. Members of the squad were also concerned about charging people who don’t have insurance and might have trouble paying, he said.

Following a meeting between the village and the ambulance squad at the end of 2006, the squad was to look into the possibility of billing patients for ambulance service. Pakenas expects that members will reach a decision at their May 22 meeting.
"I see it becoming more and more prevalent," said Pakenas of revenue recovery systems in neighboring ambulance squads. Generally, he said, those that have a system charge a flat rate of about $300 or $400 per trip in addition to a mileage charge, which is usually between $10 and $20 per mile. Patients would only be billed if they are transported by the ambulance, he said. Of the roughly 400 calls his squad answers every year, Pakenas guessed that about 200 people would be billed for services.
It’s the village’s obligation to explore different sources of revenue that might ease the tax burden on residents, Mayor Robert Conway said. That’s why he encouraged the ambulance squad to look into it, he said. He doesn’t want a village resident to ask if the board has looked into billing for ambulance service and answer no, he said. "It’s a dollars-and-cents question," he added.
The Voorheesville Area Ambulance was allotted $41,000 in the budget just adopted for the 2007-08 fiscal year and $16,000 for the ambulance’s Length of Service Award Program, so the village’s total expense for the rescue squad is $57,000. In a letter from Conway to Pakenas dated April 12, he wrote, "Please be advised that the village will be reducing the 2006-2007 budgeted amount of $41,000 for the Voorheesville Area Ambulance by 20% for the 2007-2008 budget cycle." The village had expected to hear more details about revenue recovery from the ambulance squad in early 2007, he said, before it began putting together the budget.
"I’ve got to be honest; I felt like I was being put off," Conway said to officers of the squad who came to the village’s board meeting last week. The officers showed up at the meeting because of the letter.
"We were offended by this letter," Pakenas told the board. "If you feel that we haven’t moved fast enough, I apologize."
The village might reduce the ambulance’s budget by 20 percent in next year’s budget, Conway said this week. "What we’re basically looking for is a dialogue with the ambulance squad," he said.

Conway asked the officers at the board meeting last Tuesday if he could address the roughly 30 volunteer members of the ambulance squad at their next meeting. His offer was answered with a lukewarm response; Pakenas said that he’d get back to him.
"I wanted to make sure it would productive, not destructive," Pakenas said this week, "given the high level of emotion that was generated by the letter he sent."
"I know it’s a contentious issue. I know it’s an emotionally-charged issue," Conway said at the meeting. But, he added, "We have a responsibility to the taxpayers."
"It makes sense for all agencies to take a look at this," Pakenas said of revenue recovery this week, but the most important thing to weigh is patient care. "We have to think about all sides of the issue," he said.

Other business

In other business, the village board:

— Voted unanimously to adopt the village budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year;

— Voted unanimously to appoint Jim Creed as the basketball director for the village’s recreation program and Cathy Creed as the craft director;

— Voted unanimously to adopt water usage charges that will take effect on June 1;

— Heard from Will Smith, of the public works department, that he received a response to a letter he wrote at the request of the village board to the state’s Department of Transportation, asking that the speed limit on Route 85A from the village line to Crow Ridge Road and Route 156 from Koontz Road into Depot Road be lowered.

The posted speed limit in both areas is 40 miles per hour, he said, and the letter from the DOT said that those limits are reasonable. In looking into the village’s request, Smith reported the letter said, the DOT conducted radar tests and found constant speeding; it has asked the State Police and the Albany County Sheriff’s Department for stepped-up patrols in those areas; and

— Heard from Conway that he attended a conference in Corning, N.Y., on walkable communities. He said that Voorheesville already has most of the things that were promoted for more walkable communities.