N.Y. Ambulance Company Pledges Availability of Two to Three Ambulances for Lockport

Sept. 07--LOCKPORT -- Officials of Twin City Ambulance, which will take over ambulance service in the City of Lockport next week, promised the Common Council last week that the company will have two ambulances available in or near the city at all times and three at peak times.

For financial reasons, the Council voted unanimously to do away with the Fire Department's ambulance service, which the department has operated for the last 40 years. The city-run service will end at 7 a.m. next Monday, and Twin City will take over on a three-year contract for which the city will pay nothing, except to be billed if a city worker is hurt on the job.

Twin City will make its money by charging users of the ambulances, but CEO Bryan A. Brauner said Twin City simply takes what Medicaid or Medicare offers when it handles patients who have government insurance.

Mayor Anne E. McCaffrey said, "Seventy-five percent of our volume is Medicaid or Medicare." For those with private insurance, the out-of-pocket price will depend on the deductibles and other terms of each patient's policy, McCaffrey said.

"If they're uninsured, we would look at (billing) on a case-by-case basis," Brauner said.

Twin City President Terence P. Clark said its rates are higher than the city's. Discussions of raising Lockport ambulance fees in the past showed that the city was charging hundreds of dollars less for a typical call than private-sector ambulances.

"In past years, taxpayers have been subsidizing the cost of the ambulance service," McCaffrey said. That cost will now be borne by users, she said.

City officials say that even though the city collected about $600,000 a year in ambulance fees, that did not cover the cost of the service when all personnel costs were taken into account. Kevin W. Pratt, president of the Lockport Professional Fire Fighters Association, denied that, contending that the service cost about $400,000 to operate.

A public question-and-answer meeting about Twin City's plans is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday in City Hall. The meeting was originally announced for Tuesday but was postponed because of a conflict with the city's annual tax foreclosure auction.

Twin City, which has 34 ambulances in its fleet and two more on order, provides ambulance service in the Tonawandas, Amherst, Williamsville, Clarence, Grand Island and the Adams fire district in Wheatfield.

McCaffrey said that she asked North Tonawanda Mayor Robert G. Ortt about Twin City's performance and that Ortt told her he hasn't had a single complaint about them in his five years as mayor.

Brauner told the Council that Twin City will have one paramedic-staffed ambulance in the city 24 hours a day, with a basic life-support ambulance also in the city at all times.

During peak periods, which city records show are roughly from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Twin City will have a second paramedic ambulance in Lockport. Brauner said the city's records told him that the city has not had more than three rescue calls in any hour in the last four years.

The ambulances are expected to be posted downtown, near the corner of South Transit Street and Lincoln Avenue, with the backup near Transit Road and Millersport Highway.

Twin City has the ability to flex some of its crews toward Lockport in case of need. Otherwise, as the Fire Department did, Twin City will call on nearby volunteer fire companies for help if they get into a bind. The company is looking for an ambulance storage space in the city, preferably downtown. Clark said Twin City was interested in using the firehouse.

"It's something we inquired about. So far, it doesn't look like that's going to happen," Clark said.

Twin City has its own dispatchers, and 911 calls will be dispatched to Twin City by the Niagara County Sheriff's Office, which takes over Lockport fire and rescue dispatching duties as of 7 a.m. next Monday.

Meanwhile, the city's two ambulances are to be auctioned off. Had the city kept the service, McCaffrey and Pratt agreed that the city would have had to buy two new ones next year, costing a total of about $300,000.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

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