Featured News

Macedon Town Ambulance Service on the roll

Service established to fill a need in emergency response times

From left to right, Macedon Town Ambulance Volunteer and Finger Lakes Ambulance employee Steve Gilson, Macedon Town Supervisor Bill Hammond and Macedon Ambulance Director Rick Dodge.

Armed with a new one million dollar+ annual payment from Waste Management, Macedon Town Supervisor Bill Hammond embarked upon several avenues of long-term goals for the Town. One was to lower property taxes for residents and another was to provide a needed 24 hour/7 day a week ambulance service. Now, both have become a reality.

The money is part of an agreement with the High Acres Landfill, owned by Waste Management, located on the Town's western border with the Town of Perinton . The landfill, operating and paying usage fees for over 20 years to Perinton, is approaching its expansion limit in Perinton and planned for an expansion into 100 acres of adjacent land it owned in Macedon. The agreement reached pays Macedon $1,150,000 per year in anticipated fees. The last Macedon Town Budget showed a 33% decrease in town property taxes.

The new ambulance service was born in response to problems the long-time all-volunteer services have realized throughout the County with a shrinking base of volunteers and sometimes long response times for calls. Over the past several years, the 21 ambulance services located throughout the County have had mutual aid agreements, where services located outside a municipal ambulance service would back-up local calls. The County, in response to a need for ambulance response times, instituted its own “fly-car” service, a daytime medical response Advance Life Support team that could lend support to municipal transporting ambulances who did not have the highly-trained medical people required in many cases.

The totally-outfitted fly cars are called in to assist in emergencies, but do not transport individuals. The County fly car people administer aid at a location and often assist the local ambulance services while transporting patients to hospitals. Currently, there are two County fly cars operating, one out of the Town of Marion , the other stationed in North Rose. According to E911 Coordinator Jim Lee, who oversees the fly car operation, the program has been an outstanding success at filling a need in the County. Currently, there are five full-time and 7 part-time County employees manning the rigs that operate 7 days a week during the daytime hours only. Lee said there are no current plans to expand the service to 24/7.

The County, with its number of calls and expansive call area, was unable to attract a for-profit ambulance service, such as those who service the more population-dense City of Rochester . The Village of Lyons has maintained a 24/7 ambulance service and Newark maintains a driver only, for the 24 hour shift.

The new Macedon Town Ambulance service began on January 1st of this year with Finger Lakes Ambulance, a paid service located out of Ontario County , providing the rig and personnel. On February 3rd, the Macedon rig was totally permitted and began running with Finger Lakes providing the manpower until the Macedon staff could be brought up to strength.

According to Rick Dodge, Director of Ambulance Services for Macedon, there are 12 volunteers on the Macedon Town squad, five of whom are trained EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians).

The Macedon Town service covers the Town of Macedon and is on mutual aid agreements to back up other ambulance services if necessary. The Macedon Village Ambulance covers calls to the Village, with the Town rig acting as back-up.

Dodge knows there will be a period of growth, both in the number of calls and trained manpower. He hopes to develop a compensation program for his volunteer staff similar to one that is in place in the Town of Perinton .

The Macedon Ambulance Service has started with one new ambulance costing out at $240,000 fully equipped. It has responded to 50 calls since beginning on January 1st. The Service bills third party insurers for calls and joins the flood of regional volunteer squads moving towards billing for transports. Macedon Town Ambulance is now in the process of applying for reimbursements through Medicaid.

The Town, with the availability of the High Acres annual income, has put aside $200,000 for the first year of operations. “Bill Hammond told me I had better not spend it all though,” said Dodge with a smile. Located on North Wayneport Road in rented garages and offices next to the Macedon Police station, the Town is currently doing a space study. The plan is to build a public safety building that would house all facets of police, ambulance and courts under s single roof. The acre-size building will most probably be located on 6 acres of land acquired by the Town, off Macedon Commons Parkway , off Route 31. “The drawings are done,” touted Dodge.

A non-profit Board of Directors oversees the operation for the Town. The Board is currently comprised of Susan Maier as president, Ken Hammond, Steve Gilson, Paul Maier and Rick Dodge.

For more information on the Macedon Town Ambulance Service, or to volunteer, Rick Dodge can be reached at (315) 986-2309, or be e-mail at macambul@rochester.rr.com