BERNE — The town of Berne and Albany County have reached an agreement that will let Berne continue receiving the critical emergency medical services from the county that it has for two decades. 

Details on how the services will be funded are unclear, however, as Supervisor Dennis Palow did not respond to queries after he announced to The Enterprise that an agreement had been reached following a meeting he had Monday with Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, who oversees county EMS.

Apple also did not directly respond to Enterprise queries, but his confidential secretary, Kimberly DeSantis, told The Enterprise in an email that the Berne “supervisor has most of the money in his budget for 2025,” and that the local volunteer squad, Helderberg Ambulance, “is helping.” 

“There will be no change to any services,” DeSantis said. 

County spokeswoman Mary Rozak told The Enterprise Wednesday that she believed the town is expected to pay around $175,000 for the county service, but said that figure would need to be confirmed by Palow. 

Berne’s tentative budget did not show any changes as of Wednesday morning. Palow had taken the EMS money out following public outcry over an earlier draft of the budget that would have raised town taxes by 19 percent.

The removal of $170,000 from the county EMS lines allowed Palow to drop the tax rate to a 2-percent increase, staying under the state-set levy limit, though this turned out to be arguably more controversial than the 19-percent proposed increase had been.

Albany County Legislator Chris Smith, a Conservative who represents Berne and owns a popular restaurant in the town, told The Enterprise earlier this month that he was “very concerned” about the potential loss of county EMS since he said they answer roughly half the calls that are made from his restaurant every year. 

After releasing the latest version of the budget, Palow had defended the decision to remove county EMS funding by saying the county would essentially be forced to continue providing service whether the town paid or not, and that the town should get a discount because Helderberg Ambulance — the last remaining volunteer service on the Hill — takes some of the local calls. 

Apple responded to this through The Enterprise by saying that the cost of the service is distributed across towns according to census data, and that, if the town refused to pay, he would recommend to the county legislature that it withhold some of the town’s sales tax distribution from the county.