GUILDERLAND — This growing suburban town — population  36,843 and counting — now has a third ambulance station.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday, Oct. 30, a week after the new station went into operation. In that first week, 53 calls were dispatched from the new location.

The demand for emergency response is growing, with a record 6,717 calls answered last year.

“We’ve got an aging population,” Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber said at the ceremony, “and the key was how do we do it right,” he said of establishing a town-run service.

The town subsumed the once all-volunteer Western Turnpike Rescue Squad in 2018. The only remaining partly-volunteer squad in town, the Altamont Rescue Squad, shut down on Jan. 1.

Guilderland Emergency Medical Service is now covering Altamont as well as the neighboring town of Knox, which had been covered by the Altamont squad. Its Guilderland coverage includes part of the State Thruway and part of the University at Albany campus.

The new three-bay station at 1 Arthurs Place, near the town-owned golf course, has access to both routes 20 and 146.

The town has two other ambulance stations — in Westmere, off of Route 20, and on Carman Road.

On July 12, the town board unanimously approved a bid from M.A. Schafer for $739,000 to build the shell of a building with town workers finishing the interior.

The project was to be funded largely by monies from the federal American Rescue Plan, Barber had said at the town board’s Feb. 1 meeting.

At the Oct. 30 ceremony, Barber praised GEMS and its leaders.

“These guys were phenomenal,” he said of setting up the service, “basically keeping it going. Then, as we know, the pandemic hit. They were leaders in that response.”

GEMS held vaccination clinics and went to homes throughout Albany County to administer vaccines against COVID-19 to people who couldn’t get out, which, Barber said, led to the state’s health department recognizing GEMS as the agency of the year in the entire state.

Barber also commended two members of the State Assembly who were on hand for the ceremony for the work they did in passing legislation to help rescue squads.

Phil Steck, he said, worked to pass legislation to reimburse the town for the long waits at hospitals.

“The wait times at the emergency room at Albany Medical Center are unacceptable,” said Steck. “It is the longest wait time of any hospital E.R. in the state of New York.”

When emergency rooms are crowded, ambulance crew members assume duties that would normally fall to hospital staff since they can’t leave their patients unattended.

“We did pass legislation to deal with safe staffing in hospitals that was passed by both houses,” said Steck “signed into law, and then put on pause by the governor due to complaints from hospitals. Unfortunately, we have, as a result of that, people who need lifesaving treatment are not getting it in a timely manner.”

While Steck praised Guilderland for “doing an excellent job,” he said, “We have to do better at the state level.”

Barber lauded Fahy for legislation that allows ambulance crews to be paid directly by insurance companies rather than having the money go to the transported patient.

“I’m proud that we did pass a couple of different EMS-related legislative bills this year that are so important,” said Fahy, who is running to represent the 46th District in the State Senate.

“One allows for treatment in place, which is really going to help with reimbursement rates that have become a chronic problem across the state,” she said.

The legislation allows ambulance squads to get reimbursed for services, including blood transfusions, that are done in a patient’s home rather than, as formerly, only being paid if the patient were transported to a hospital.

“So now when somebody doesn’t need to wait in that line at the hospital, and, yes, the lines have become untenable, particularly at Albany Med and St. Peter’s … so now you can treat in place when it is something that can be handled,” said Fahy. “You can also do the blood transfusions.”

Fahy went on, “We’ve also passed a couple of bills to address some of the healthcare worker shortages, which I was proud to do as the Higher Ed [ucation Committee] chair.”

Barber also lauded Fahy and Steck for money they had secured for equipment. Barber said the “population is getting heavier” and money that Fahy secured for power lifts on stretchers has reduced workers’ compensation claims.

Steck, who is running for re-election in the Assembly’s 110th District — a small part of Guilderland is in his district —  said of securing funds for projects, “When we give money for particular uses to a municipality, we like to see it get in the field. And because Guilderland operates efficiently and gets the resources in that field, they get more money than others who are leaving millions of dollars on the table.”

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said that, among politicians, “You’ve got your sayers, your doers, and your finger-pointers [who] get nothing done and that just like to point and blame everyone else.”

Barber, he said, has “gotten stuff done time and time again.”

Other places in New York state are in trouble, McCoy said, as volunteer ambulance squads disappear. “They’re in trouble because they didn’t get ahead of the ball,” he said.

Now, McCoy said, they’re trying “to get funding and taxing districts and all that stuff.” In Albany County, a coalition of municipalities that use EMS provided by the county sheriff’s office, has asked for a taxing district so the county rather than the municipalities are not burdened with the added costs, which ultimately would be paid by the same residents.

McCoy concluded of Barber, “You’re smart to get ahead of it because it’s not cheap, but you can’t put a dollar amount on someone’s life.”

Jay Tyler, who directs GEMS, had the last word.

He thanked the Guilderland Fire Department for letting GEMS use space there until the new station was built and Altamont for currently housing an ambulance in one of its firehouse bays.

“We’ve had our trials and tribulations here,” said Tyler. “But we have an excellent product here, and it’s going to serve the community for many, many years to come.”