GUILDERLAND — The town has moved from using vans to using trucks for ambulances.

On May 6, the Guilderland Town Board agreed to buy a new box-style ambulance for $326,273. Gorman Emergency Services was the sole bidder.

Sean McGaughnea, Guilderland Emergency Medical Services director, advised the board in a memo that the price could increase by as much as $30,000 if it weren’t locked in now.

Hence, the board agreed to pay half when the contract is signed, another quarter when production starts, and the remaining quarter when the ambulance is delivered.

McGaughnea said he hoped the four-wheel-drive ambulance would be delivered by the end of the year. It will replace a 2015 ambulance with roughly 180,000 miles as part of a replacement plan to move from the former vans to box ambulances.

When the paid GEMS squad took over from the volunteer Western Turnpike Rescue Squad, McGaughnea said, “The ones that we originally bought, we bought from Western Turnpike and they don’t really fit the way we operate as an ALS ambulance,” he said of Advance Life Support.

Volunteer squads typically provide Basic Life Support. ALS requires more training and more advanced equipment so that, for example, medications can be administered intravenously on the way to the hospital.

 McGaughnea described the vans as “throw-away ambulances — you buy them and then they go through their life and they’re not used anywhere else.”

He said the last two ambulances that GEMS auctioned off brought in roughly $10,000. One was bought for parts, he said, and the other “went to Chile.”

“Now we plan to re-chassis and reuse … to get more of a value out of this,” he said.

McGaughnea went on, “There’s one option where you just literally pick the old box up and put it on a new chassis. There’s others that you can go in and they can put a new floor; they can put new electronics in it; they can put in any of the new technology that you need.”

Answering more questions from the board, McGaughnea also said, “This will be our fourth diesel engine.”

Asked if electric ambulances are on the horizon, he said, “There’s been rumors of it.”

McGaughnea said the ambulances with the truck fronts are “designed for the weight that we put on them” and are also easier to service.

“It’s more time intensive,” he said of working on the vans. The equipment, he said, is in what is called “the doghouse,” which is “between the two seats in front.”

“You have to take all that out to work on the engine,” he said.

Asked about the cost, McGaughnea said purchasing the more durable boxtrucks would “save significant money”: “We expect that it’s anywhere from 50 percent cheaper to about 75 percent of the cost.”

He concluded, “It’s nice to standardize the fleet really as we move forward. You make Wyatt very happy that way,” he said of the mechanic.

Other business

In other business at its May 6 meeting, the Guilderland Town Board:

— Heard several questions from Robyn Gray, head of the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth.

She asked about installing benches in town parks that don’t have them, to which Supervisor Peter Barber replied that nine or 10 benches received from Stuyvesant Plaza would be  “installed fairly soon.”

Gray asked when trails would be created at the land Hamilton Park, the former Hiawatha Trails golf course, off of Route 155, gave to the town. 

“The trails already are installed,” said Barber, and signs will be posted soon. “You can walk on them right now,” he said.

Gray noted that residents of Altamont and Delmar have been holding protests and asked, “Is there any restriction as to what people in Guilderland can do and where they can do it?”

Barber said to ask the police chief;

— Authorized flying a Pride flag at Town Hall during the month of June.

Last year, the board adopted a policy on what flags could be flown at town hall that says in part that the town board can vote, as it did with the pride flag, to display flags at the town hall to “commemorate events or observances that have observance days, months or periods of time declared by Proclamation of the President of the United States, by Act of Congress, or by Proclamation of the Governor of the State of New York.”

“I’m not going to get into the politics,” said Barber, “but I don’t expect to see a federal proclamation this year, but I know the state has one,” he said of declaring June as Pride Month;

— Agreed to purchase three vehicles, for a total  of $60,000, from the Fort Hunter Volunteer Fire Company. A 2016 Ford Explorer will be used by GEMS while a 2015 Polaris Ranger and a 2009 F350 will be used by the golf course and parks department;

— Awarded a contract for replacing furnaces at the town’s transfer station to Beliveau Mechanical, as the lowest responsible bidder, for $22,660; and

— Schedule the Household Hazardous Day for 2025 on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the highway department.