• work session. Our first presentation or discussion of the evening will be with the police department chief Nick Natopoulos. Would you like to begin? Yes. Okay. Okay. Hello, everyone. So,
• There are some increases in a few things, so I wanted to go over them first
• just so you're aware.
• So
• there are several reasons for the increases.
• One is gonna be salary contractual. There's nothing I can do about that.
• Regular overtime, I asked for an increase in $20,000
• from what it from the prior years.
• Community and youth overtime, we have increased the number of community events that we host each year. We have restarted our youth cadet program and and currently have 25 students enrolled.
• Contractual expenses are up 21,000,
• primarily due to our contract with Lexapol
• and which was 14 and 4,000
• of it's gonna be for the LPR sites and maintenance.
• Taser supplies have gone up $2,000.
• Defibrillator batteries and supplies have gone up about $2,500.
• And,
• well, I guess the last reason is generally increasing cost of supplies.
• So
• the as I said, I I don't think we wanna go through line by line,
• but the salaries are contractual.
• I told you about the patrol overtime going up.
• School and cadet program, we raised a little bit
• just because we've got that started again.
• Training seminars,
• interview room, all that stuff has stay stayed the same. Audio, log recorder, law books that we need.
• Software for impact is is basically the same.
• IT maintenance hardware is the same. Email hosting
• association dues, police vehicle maintenance, cable, and TLO.
• TLO
• went up a little bit, but that was last year, so it should be the same this year.
• Firearms, the outdoor range is the same. Ricky maintenance and licenses are the same. Alarm system is the same.
• General maintenance has stayed the same.
• Investigation,
• has stayed the same.
• The electronic doors and ID software has gone up. That's a new line. We put in $1,288.
• LPR sites, I told you they went up a little bit. Lexapol, I explained to you.
• Police schooling
• is generally the same.
• Toners and printers
• went up a couple $100.
• Media stayed the same. Crime scene supplies
• have gone up $600
• generally due to the increase in prices.
• Paper and envelopes basically stayed the same.
• Road supplies,
• I actually think we decreased by $600
• from last year.
Chief, I I think let me see if the board has any questions rather than going line by line. Oh. Okay.
• Save save a little time.
• details. One thing I wanted to point out in case, you know, folks were wondering, you know, over the last couple of weeks, we approved that significant
• purchase for the body worn cameras very much justified. I think it's a great addition,
• to the department. Most of the cost of those will be, borne by a grant for, for at least the first, first period. Correct? Almost the first two years. Two years. Okay. So that's that's what and then I I think it's a great thing and then, of course, helps the budget tremendously.
• request additional manpower,
• which I don't see in the current budget.
• I do know that you're going to possibly fund the
• grant or whatever you wanna call it to do a survey and study on the police department.
• I
• really do wanna stress that we need more manpower.
• The body worn cameras,
• if if you're not gonna give me another man this year, I I really think we need to increase the overtime another 25,000
• because once we get them,
• the cost
• and the time that we're gonna have to deal with with discovery
• and everything else Yeah. Is gonna increase exponentially.
And I don't know how else to put it. You know? That's I I I was just gonna say that I've I've heard with other communities around the country that I've worked with that
• it's it's
• almost always the case, you know, the the body worn cameras, the the data management.
• You know, someone said to me at Madison,
• Wisconsin, they said,
• you you know what you know what body worn cameras mean? I said, what's that? He said, another sergeant. Just because just I the mean, I that's what I did request. I requested a few other people and another sergeant.
• play a big role once people know we have them. Anything that goes to trial, they're gonna be looking for the cameras both in the car and on the, you know, the body worn. You know, if two officers show up at a call or or a second officer shows up on a vehicle traffic stop, we're gonna have to download their camera also.
• It's gonna be a lot of work that's coming up with the body worn cameras. Most departments
• have somebody basically just doing that.
So I have a question just about how you structured your ask about who you like, what positions you asked for in the department, how you would structure your work differently.
• I also have a question about body worn cameras in terms of the contract and when those would be coming in. Mhmm.
Go ahead. You want me to start? You I mean, I can I'll I'll start with the I'll start with the contractual question. Yeah. So the the contract does not start until June 15. Okay. So
although I don't did did you say, chief, that you had gotten some stuff already in the mail? Did already. We didn't open all the boxes yet, but they did already start to send us stuff because we signed that agreement. Yeah. We did question
• why they were sending it already in case it doesn't get funded.
• So
• we did ask that question.
• Correct. So that's basically yeah. That's that's what we're That's basically why we haven't opened the boxes. In case we have to just send them back.
But the the official start date was June 15. June 15. And then okay. And then from Lexapro perspective, so I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions about that. So how how much more
• so you said that that cost is going up. How much more work do we need to do with Lexapro?
• Are they just now on retainer? Because I know we've gone through the policies with them.
We still have to the lieutenant and I still have to do the procedure manual Mhmm. And then we have to do the you know, we have to do all the accreditation stuff. Lexapol,
• we basically hired to keep us up to
• speed, I guess, on all the policies, all the changes, and everything else. Now they just sent us nine policies that
so they continuously update the policies with all the new laws that come out. So that that's never really Lexapol, I guess, will never really go away. Go away. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's good to understand. That's basically what it you know. And the other the other thing they do, right, is they they send daily training, right, that the officers?
Correct. Yeah. So they send like a five minute training that the officers are supposed to do every day on myriad
• different
topics. Got it. Yeah. So how much is that annually, the Lexapol? It's budgeted for 14,000.
• Okay. Yeah. And
• so then have we done a body camera
• policy
• and do we need to? Yeah. I'm currently in
• with the police association.
• Right? Because it's a it's a mandatory topic of
• bargaining. Alright. So I can't really talk more about that in this setting. If you wanna, we can talk about it, you know, in an
executive session or something like that. I guess I'm just trying to get an idea of timing. Right? So the The policy wouldn't the policy the cameras wouldn't start until the policy was Right. So we're gonna restart receiving the cameras.
• We may have to tweak it a little bit because we were unsure what cameras we were getting. Now we haven't initiated that policy yet, but once we get the cameras and we start moving forward, we are gonna have to put that policy out.
• Okay. Okay.
• So, we actually do have a policy, but it's not out to the department yet. So do you have a target
would be ready to go with body worn cameras? I I think we originally thought maybe, like, by October.
• You know? Okay. So, I mean, we do have an opportunity where I'm going. Sorry. Where I'm going with this is if there is additional manpower
• needed,
• we could do a budget amendment
• at that time. Right? Yeah. You I mean, yes. You could. Yes. Right. Because there there are a lot of steps that we kind of do need to go because that will the board look and talk through the policy?
No. That would that would be I mean, the the policy the policy was written by Lexipol for the most part with input from the chief and lieutenant.
• And then what I have to do, right, is is negotiate with the union the impacts of that policy.
• So it's, you know, it's administration
Yep. Topic. I also think, you know, we had a conversation. I wasn't here. I listened to your conversation
• last week when we did the approval of the body worn cameras.
• I'm in agreement. I think that, you know, it's something that we need as a department.
• But I also think that I wanna be clear with the public about the cost of the cameras and also the cost of additional
• police associated with that. Right? So I I, know, it it sort of they go hand in hand.
• So if I mean, if that's the case that we do need additional support in the police department, then we need to be clear that that that that that sort of needs to happen. Yeah.
• You know, and if if that's the case, then, you know, we had you know, last night we put it on the agenda for
• public comment. Right?
• We didn't get anyone. We didn't get anyone's comments, which is fine. But at the same time, I just don't want
• people to think that we're doing this not in an upfront way. Yeah.
• Because if it does mean additional
• police officers,
• that's like an it's it's an entirely different conversation that I just want the public to be privy to. Yeah. Absolutely. And there's also I mean, once the grant funding
runs out, right, I mean, the the the there's costs associated with the cameras that are going to be annual
• costs Mhmm. Right, related to data storage and,
• you know, just regular maintenance of the cameras, replacement if if they break, you know. Well, there is a lifespan to the cameras as well. So So, I mean, there will be you know, this is not a one time purchase. Right? This there will be ongoing
Cost. Yearly cost. Yearly cost. Yes. But I I would like to have an estimate of what those costs will be kind of going forward
• just so we have a full understanding
• of of the cost of having body cameras.
• Again, I think overall, I'm in agreement that we should have them, but I also think that there is a significant sort of shift in our policy
• that it's going to need more manpower. Right? I don't think that conversation came up last week No. That there would be a need for more manpower.
So that that is an additional sort of layer of complexity to it. Yeah. I mean, I didn't bring it up at the body camera thing because I had put it in the budget. Mhmm. You know, I thought you were aware of it or whatever, but
• it is going to be a significant draw on our manpower and quite frankly the Lieutenant and I are spending a lot of time already doing stuff that
• we have even prioritized.
• We shouldn't even be through the Lexapult manual now, but we we actually,
• you know, decided that we were gonna do double the work that they recommended and get them done sooner. So, I mean, we really shouldn't have been done with Lexapult till, just on the manual till probably, I think, July. Right?
is that right now part of it's the study budget or what it proposed? He put it in his budget request, but I did not put in our budget. Correct. Yeah. Yeah.
So what is the difference? So kinda going back to my original question then, what was your original ask?
• How would how what how many additional officers? Three additional officers and one promotion
You know, I You would have you would have just to just to clarify, you would have gone from
• five patrol sergeants to six patrol sergeants
• and then additional head count of three
• officers.
• I mean, we did do a study. We know what most of the departments have, how many calls they have, and all that. I I did all that. So we are definitely,
• understaffed.
• proposed budget number versus what's in the manager's budget?
• while he's looking for that,
• given some budget constraints and needing to stay within the tax cap as a goal.
• I know you asked for three and one promotion.
• Is there any kind of compromises
• or staggering
• of,
• you know, the new head count?
I mean, I think, listen, I think I've asked what I think is at a reasonable amount.
• I think the study that we're gonna get should show that.
• You know, listen if I could get another officer in a promotion this year it would certainly help the department and it would help us out.
• You know, I know that, you know, obviously the budget is the budget and we're trying to stay within reason, but, you know, we are
• doing a lot of work that
• That you didn't do before No. I mean, I knew it was coming, but that, you know, when when, you know, the mayor has asked several times on what's going on with accreditation, and we just keep telling them we're trying to get through this. We're trying to do this. Now we've hired Lexapol.
• You know, it should be coming sooner than later, but, you know, that has just brought so much more work, at least for the lieutenant and I, that, you know, we can barely keep up with, you know, what we're doing. You know, I'm not saying the whole department is
• over the top busy. I mean, sometimes patrol guys are, sometimes they aren't. The sergeants, we've had to I mean, we just had a staff meeting last week with our supervisors,
• and we've increased their workload
• dramatically
• because of
• Lexapol and accreditation.
• We had to assign them all more more collateral duties that they're gonna have to be doing. You know? So it it it is a it is a big process. Most jobs that have
• cameras
• and
• that are accredited have individual
• people assigned to it all the time. That's their job.
And I think that's why we, you know, I think that's why we need to do a study. Right? I mean, I think that that's what we kind of need to understand is
• the amount of workload that's being generated. Yeah. And and and really, like, is that still a priority for the department,
• for the village
• If we want to
• you know, what will it cost us, you know, kind of in in the future if if that continues to be a goal? I know it was a goal in 2020 when we set out, but I also don't know if we can sustain a department
• with sort of incremental growth
• over the next ten years. Right? I don't envision that we're gonna have a budget large enough to sustain
• much a much larger department. Right? I mean, in reality
• important, but I also think that we have to be realistic about how much we can afford. Yeah. I mean, yes.
• I'll send you there are other police agencies of other villages in Westchester
• that are accredited. So this is not something that's beyond the grasp of a Westchester village,
• even ones with smaller police departments.
• And I get the timing, and the timing is what it is, but, again, other people have figured out how to do it, they figured out how to do it a few years ago. So it can be done. Manager, a quick question. When we do the study,
• say that in the in the in in the study looking at at our costs and our out year costs as we go forward,
• can you please take into account the additional cost related to the body worn cameras and what it's gonna what it's gonna
• mean on an annual basis for the next several years
after the grant runs out? Yeah. I don't see why why we can't ask for that. I think I think that helps us to have a good base on on that. Yeah. I just, you know,
• a couple of points, you know, I just
• I agree with what trustee Nicholson was saying that,
• you know, obviously, the chief had his budget request Mhmm. And it was significant. Right? The salaries alone
• would have added $248,000
• to the budget. Right? That doesn't include the benefits.
• That's
• just the salary. So, you know,
• recognizing
• that,
• obviously, the chief with his many years of experience knows
• what the department needs,
• but we all I also felt that
• following through with the study so that instead of just
• with myself and the board trying to figure out with the chief's information how best to proceed, We bring in somebody who has done this in other places
• and can share that experience with us and help us come to the best solution for our village specifically.
• So,
• you know, obviously, there's an expense to having the study done. It's, you know, only a fraction
• of what the salary the salaries would cost, but at least then we'll have a blueprint to follow to make sure that we get to that sustainable
• hopefully, we get to that sustainable level that trustee Nicholson was saying.
And when he in his in your pitch, I assume that your because your overtime number is $350,000,
• so that would was that significantly lower
• with additional officers that you were requesting? The overtime?
I mean, if we get to where we can increase the size of patrol and we still maintain
• two men on the road if somebody calls out sick, we won't have to fill that position because we'll we'll have still have two on the road. So it may cut down some of the overtime. Mhmm. But I'm not I can't I'm not gonna definitively guarantee that. On a narrow accounting basis, it's almost never the case that
• outweigh
• it's always gonna be a net increase. Mhmm. I would, know, you can make the argument, and I think there's some merit to it that there's other value
• to be had there.
• But, you know, if you hire an officer, it's not
• the chief's budget had the $20,000
• increase in the overtime, which is what you see. So I that was Okay. That I put in because, you know, the the
• salaries have increased. Right? The the hourly rates have increased, so there is some,
• you know, expectation that the overtime will
will increase. Right. And a majority of that overtime is paid back to us. Right? The majority of that overtime is Blaze and No. The what what's budgeted is generally our Is ours. Is village overtime. What you see
• from the adopted budget to the revised budget, right, that 400 and something number that's in there, those are the that's the difference between
• what we've gotten paid for. Got it. So.
• When I look at
• 2025
• actual budgets and 2026
• revised
• and then compare to the '27 ask
• on things like
• overtime,
• in '25
• actual, it was 638,000
• in overtime, so almost 639,000.
• And then
• in 2026,
• the revised budget was 4 and 27,004
• and 69 and the 2027
• proposed
• is $3.50.
• So I just wanna understand,
• you know, there's a big gap there.
• Are we underestimating
the overtime or how, you know No. That's that's just what I was explaining to trustee Nicholson. Right? So we get we we budget for the overtime that the village is going to actually spend out of our money. Right? So we're anticipating that to cover
• people that call out sick, that go on vacation,
• our own village events. Right? We're gonna spend approximately $350,000
• on overtime.
• The difference between that 600,000
• number and the 350,
• is largely because of Con Edison,
• gas main work, the Blaze,
• you know, those are things that we get paid for. Right? So when the when we bring when money when revenue comes into the village, we recognize that revenue. The board does by adopting a budget amendment resolution
• so that the treasurer can recognize
• increasing the expenditure line and then and then recognizing the revenue in the revenue account.
• So that's why you see that budget the revised budget number So is it three fifty fairly flat year over year? It it I mean,
• flat is a relative term. Right? Because percent. So we so, like, this last year, it was 300 or or this current year that we're in, it's 330,000.
• We're increasing that to 350,000
• for this year. Okay. Right? To account for increases in the hourly rates and, you know, just general
• potential
• for you know, we have been trying to
• increase this budget
• line so that it would get to the point where
• we didn't have the large overages that if you go if you were to go back in the budgets and look further back a couple of years,
• we were well over what was budgeted. Okay. Right? Because
• we were we were down people. Yeah. We were, you know, there was just a lot of stuff going on, and so we were spending way more that was than what was budgeted. So we've tried to increase this by, like, $20.30, 50,000 a year just to try to get to that right number. And I think we're we're pretty much there at this point because
• with the new fee schedule that we have where they pay they used to pay
• the hourly rate of every single officer
• that was out. So if, you know, if you had a
• first year officer,
• you would have to figure out what his hourly rate was, and then if you had a second year officer, you figure out and it was just a lot of work for the finance department. Was a lot of work for lieutenant,
• and so we switched it two years ago to just say, you know what, it doesn't matter which officer is working,
• everybody's just gonna pay a flat hourly rate, and that way, it's just easier on accounting and we're able to, you know, recognize that revenue. Mhmm. And so we also now have
• the vehicle and scheduling fee. Right? Because it takes a lot of work to try to get the overtime filled for Con Edison and for the Blaze and making sure that everybody actually is on their post and getting the vehicles, you know, ready to be out there. So there's a scheduling fee that's involved as well. So and that brings in additional revenue for the for the department as well. So between
• between right sizing the number of people, getting all our spots
• filled in the department,
• and, you know, adjusting our fee schedule, I think the number that we've come to right now leaves us in a pretty good spot.
• OT?
• There's a,
• you know, a gap too that
• is, you know, the average
• amount spent in '25 and '26 was $83,007.95.
• We're budgeting 65,000.
• So do we get revenue off of this? Yeah.
Go ahead. That we don't get revenue on, but we can't predict the amount of investigations that are gonna go on. Some of them are very serious. They take a long time. So, you know, like the manager said, we're just trying to find a sweet spot where we kinda think that's where we might end up. It could cost us more next year. It could cost us less. Yeah. Specifically,
• if if all our crimes happen during the day, we're good. If they happen if they get called in at night, then, you know, there's overtime. Right? So
• Yeah.
Well, there is a well, there is ultimately a limit. You don't want to nickel and dim into an investigation list. Absolutely.
Yeah. And just also to the chief's credit, I think you did when did detective DiTomasso
• was that December you We just promoted him. Yeah. So we've now we've now added a third detective into the detective's office,
• and you have him working
• or I shouldn't just You say
• have now you have different kind of shifts, right Yes. To kind of assist.
• So you'll probably I'm hoping that that number in the detective the investigation
• over time will be a little bit lower this year because
• you will have
We will have. But, you you know, like I said, it really depends on the investigations. And Mhmm. You know, as the village manager said, crime doesn't really happen during the day.
• are you seeing more calls
• in mental health calls, nonemergency issues?
• You know, could partnerships
• help reduce workload or costs?
• I didn't know how you're seeing the trends. And
• somewhat of an increase in mental health since COVID started, believe And it or we do answer a lot of those calls.
• We are into a lot of the county programs where we can reach out to them as well.
• But, you know, all those calls have increased.
• So And
• if we help provide more partnerships,
• I don't know, man, are, you know, are we I know I'm sure you're tapping into the the county and the town and
• just maybe shifting some workload from the officers to other resources
where, you know I I mean, I think I think the police and, you know, the chief can probably speak to this better than me, but, you know, they do work with the county, the on the, you know, the county police have mental health resources that, you know, they have
• partnered with.
• But generally speaking, the police do respond to to most of those calls. We respond to most and a lot of times, we have to tell
• you know, stay in a safe area until we secure the scene. So we're still we're still going to most of them. We we have had a couple where I think they've just requested mental health and we've
notified them and and we've had them reach out to them, but they're they're few and far between. Right? And we do partner with the crisis response team, which is local and which most departments do in in Westchester.
• Mhmm. And and they help out a lot, but we still have to go to we still have to go to Call. Most of them. Yeah. Yeah.
• Yeah.
• Thank
• you.
I'm sorry. Did anybody have anything else? An unrelated question. Firearms transition
going well. Well, the firearms are not in, but they are ordered. Yep. We're waiting for them to come in. We have had our firearms instructors
• complete several courses for the new optics. Right.
• They have one more class to complete
• through through county PD through their firearms down there. We're gonna send them. And as soon as they come in, we'll be able to start
• training, qualifying, and implementing them. Big year big year ahead. Well,
• we we try to always be ahead, but we always end up a step behind sometimes. But we're we're we're trying.
• she just wanted me to, you know, share her regrets for missing tonight.
• But she did have two
• comments on the police budget. One was about the overtime, which I think we've we've covered at this point. Mhmm. And then the other question slash comment that she had was about the hours that the police officers spend in the schools.
• So I think we've kind of talked about this before,
• you know, based on conversations
• that have
• taken place. Right? There's been
• some
• discussion at the police advisory committee
• and elsewhere about the potential for school resource officers.
• At this point in time, the school district has not requested
• the department to
• to have a school resource officer,
• but, you know, we,
• as the village, do provide some
• teaching In schools. Right. Some teaching in the schools Yes. For
• certain things. Right? I believe the officers go to all three schools to teach appropriate
level There is. Material. Right? And then there's also a modified, we don't call it DARE anymore, but we still do a modified teaching for the fifth grade, sixth grade, you know,
• and up.
• So, you know, there are some classes they do at the high school.
• And we do do several events at CET.
• So, I
• think we're trying to keep track of the exact hours so we can So, give them to
• we are still working on that and you know, by hopefully the end of the school year, we can give you an accurate
depiction of how many hours we spend there. I think that I think that will be helpful. So I think at at the beginning of the school year or maybe not the exact beginning, but maybe in early fall,
• you had you had told me that it was approximately two hundred hours for those teaching
• programs.
• And
• then, you know, there may be other hours that are that are done. We also spend a lot of time with the
• lockdown drills that they
• have to do, you know, we're sending a lot of manpower there for those. So,
• we do spend
• some time at the schools, you know, assisting them, but, you know, it's, you know, we're open to what they want us to help them with, so. Just
• your need for another officer and promotion sounds like minimum,
• Have you considered
• I don't know if you're allowed to or, you know, outsourcing
• or
• a temporary
• support as opposed to hiring full time FTE positions.
• Are there other options in case
Not You know, they would I think that would be very I would say no. That would be very difficult between between civil service and the The union. The union. I think it would be very difficult to do anything like that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
• are some departments, not really I mean, Buchanan is one one, for example, but Buchanan is really not comparable to the village of Proton. But they, you know, they do have some part time police officers. But as far as I know, we've never had that. I don't think Buchanan has any part time. They just have very few officers.
• I thought they I thought they were
• they don't have part time officers? I don't I don't think so. Oh, okay. I apologize. There there are part time mean, Lewisburg. Yeah. There are some in the Northeast corner of Yeah. The
for communities like ours. I mean, it's towns with populations of villages and a lot of Yeah. Just a lot of area to cover. You know, and liability wise for the village and stuff like that, we'd rather have full time trained officers that we train and keep up on. Mhmm.
The two hundred hours of teaching, that's built into your budget. Right? So that's that $40,000
• That's part of that. Part of it. Yeah. Yep.
• So that that budget line covers the,
• school's program,
• and we have some
• lines in the budget for flexibility.
• Is part of the process
• where we would help prioritize
• areas for investment,
• taking into consideration
• maybe needing
• a full time, you know, person here or whether it's infrastructure needs or things like that to to
• does the board have a work session to
Yes. I mean, so you have a so you have a recap after after you've heard from all the departments. Right? You have the the recap is the same night as the capital. Right? So we're gonna we'll we'll go over the budget as a whole at the end of that, you know, and then if there are any final changes that you wanna make based on everything that you've heard Mhmm. That would be the time to discuss those. Mhmm. So
• Thank you. Yep.
• kinda going back to the body camera
• conversation,
• right, and the additional I mean, I've worked with the chief for several years now on the PAC. So it's no surprise to me that the department is asking for additional officers.
• They have been for several years now.
• Now we're sort of adding another layer
• of
• workload
• Mhmm. To the department,
• and we really do need to understand kind of from a cost estimate perspective what that's going to cost us year over year, and if there is a need
• to
• increase
• the officers. And, you know, maybe it is a mid year
edition. Right? It doesn't sound like it's a June first edition, but We'll we'll get to we'll we'll get the study, and I think we'll Yeah. We'll wanna implement it as quickly as we can. Yeah. Yeah. And just,
I just wanted for context for people, we did add an officer to the department in
• 2025.
• I I believe. Yes. Yeah. So we did so, you know, we have we did try to be responsive to that. Right? We brought us we brought us up to the 2009 level that we had been at with 22 officers. So Yeah. Yeah. That was pre workload from body cam. Correct. Yes. Yeah.
So We basically did that. I mean, that basically, we started a traffic unit. So that's been where that officer has been.
• Okay.
• Yeah. Which has been, you know, was a priority from a police survey
• that we do annually.
• You know, that is the number one issue for folks in the community was traffic. So, it is important that that officer is doing that work. Mhmm.
• You know, so so that's great.
• Yeah. But, you know, it's challenging. Right? We have, you know, our budget is our budget, so we, you know, we wanna be respectful of our the tax cap and growth, but we also need to,
you know, support the department. And the officer that I say we have, we have a dedicated traffic car. We don't have one officer doing it. We we let them, basically,
• we assign them two months at a time, some of the officers.
• So they they would do it two months at a time, and then we we transfer somebody else in there. God bless you. Thank you.
And I just wanted to add just as we're I think as we're close to wrapping up, just we have coming up one of the best things I think we do twice a year actually, which is drug
• take back day on Saturday, April 25. That's a partnership with the public, with the whole community. Lots of kids get involved in that. And, of course, DEA, and we get what I think about 250
• pounds of of drugs each year. We do still get quite a Yeah. Good amount of prescription drugs that get handed in. So And you know. Last year, I even had, you know, someone coming in with
• drugs for their dogs and Oh, we'll
• take them. You know? So and and Rotary is very involved in in this as So we're we're we're I I think that's one of the great things that you do. And you guys are there all day. So Yeah. No. Yeah. No. That's a that's a good program, and we still Yep. Enjoy doing it. Yep. And it helps out. Yeah. It does good work. I just want to extend my thanks to the department. Yeah. On behalf of the board, I think we've had a good year,
you know, and I think it's exciting that we're gonna be having an official ceremony for National Police Week
• and a flag raising
• on May 9 to acknowledge So the work of the that's really exciting.
• So, that
• seems to get a little bigger and better every year. So,
• hopefully it will be a good, good, you know, event this year also.
Are a very, I think all the groups here tonight are just very cherished by the community.
• You know, I know whenever we talk to residents,
• they
• they they love all all of you, the police department, the fire department, the EMS.
• I mean, the the quality of the work and the commitment
• to public safety. It's just
thank you. Well, thank you for Yeah. Thank you. Acknowledging that. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you.
And I I might add also that, you know, some of, you know, one of the things we we were talking about earlier is overtime.
• And,
• you know, a lot of the overtime, you you can't anticipate it in advance that things happen,
• conditions change, and,
• you know, the the
• absolutely required presence that we're seeing now of of the
• of the police department at Temple Israel is a is a good example Yeah. Of that. And it's very very much appreciated, all the Yeah. All the good work the officers are doing there. Now, we have increased patrols around all the houses of worship. So but
the temple's kinda out there out of the way, so we do it a lot more often. Yeah.
Thank you very much for coming out and thank you for your service to our village. Thank you. Appreciate
So our next item is, the volunteer fire department. We're joined tonight by, chief Colombo and chief screening.
• Chief
• Colombo, do you have any opening remarks you wanna say? Anything? Otherwise, we can just open it to questions from the board.
• I hope everybody's doing well.
• well reasoned and
• well
• documented budget request.
• They've only
• know, and they have they have a fairly significant number of lines and their budget only went up by approximately $10,000
• from Yeah. From last year to this year. So,
• you know, they were,
• you know, very restrained in in making sure that, you know, they were submitting a, you know, a well structured budget.
Thank you. You know, I know you'll both be back for the capital program, which is, of course, you know, very important as well in terms of new equipment and
• and
• upgrades to the to the three houses. So we look forward to seeing you back there again.
• Yep.
• you know, there's $8,000
• that's budgeted for a trailer for the UTV.
• 3,500
• of that is through a grant that we received from the New York State DEC
• for wildland
• firefighting equipment. So
• that was one of the
• one of the
• main increases in their in their budget. And
• is
• how much would you estimate today that
• a full
• fire equipment outfit cost from from head to toe? You know, how much does it cost to to
• clothe with
• helmet, equipment,
• and
• all all jacket,
• to $8,000 range. Exactly. We we have two different manufacturers we buy from, and they're Right. Pretty spot on with each other. Right. $200 off. Yeah. So in the $7,000
• and and the way they wear over time, they have a lifespan,
• which is Ten years. Ten years. Yeah. Yep. So that's that's one of the reasons why it's so important. And research over the years has shown, you know, so so much
• potential exposure to cancer and other other other diseases. So it's it's very important that we keep our uniforms and our equipment up to date. Yeah. We do protect the guys with what we think is the best we can get, all the cancer
• gear.
Yep. So Yeah. It's a it's a good thing. Yeah. And chief, I was just gonna say, I've mentioned this at an earlier meeting, you know, but,
• know, when when you and and everyone came back from the to
• the fire council from the terrible Palmer file fire
• a couple of weeks ago, the first thing you said when you sat down is this is why we do the training, you know, so that so that we can respond in the right way at the right time. And that's why that's why the training in the budget, I think, is so important as well. Yes. I agree.
• Yes.
• but I I do wanna thank the fire department leadership and all the volunteers,
• including all the students
• for incredible service and work to keep us safe.
• You know, as our population grows,
• in reading up on this, it seems like since COVID, there's been a a decline in volunteerism
• throughout the state, you know, and I'm sure I have I have a feeling Croton does better than probably most other places,
• but
• it does one of those things that
• keeps me up at night as far as, wow, you know, if we ever had to go
• to a paid
• kind of career model,
• you know,
• we're talking millions of dollars in increase in property taxes.
• So
• given I know your budget is flat here, but I would like to understand,
• you know,
• is it worth investing?
• I'm just gonna throw out a number here making it up, but $75,000
• to help
• come over the top in what you're doing in recruitment and retention
• to avoid a multimillion dollar structural shift,
• you know, from going from volunteerism
• to,
• you know, full time paid or hybrid with paid. You know?
• I just you know, I come from
• a company
• where I've I've done marketing my whole life, you know, for forty years and,
• you know, and helping to recruit new consumers.
• And, you know, I'm just curious if you had a a budget,
• some extra dollars,
• you know,
• can can that help? You know? Because I I just I think we would hate to be in a position, and I don't know when that is, you know,
• of,
• wow. We just we need we need more volunteers, and it's really tough to get them. But A
lot of people are interested until they see how much training they have to do Yeah. To to remain a,
• a firefighter.
• It's it's pretty extensive. It's nights. It's weekends.
• So if if you got a family and a job or two jobs, it it's it's a toll on a lot of people. The the program for the juniors
• is nice because at 16 years old, they can start taking state courses.
• And the minute you turn 18, you're you're good to go. You're you're an actual full firefighter with us, which is real nice. Yeah.
• We we do benefit from the schools. It's a lot of people, believe it or not, my neighbors had no clue
• that we were volunteer here. They moved here from the city. I know. And they literally were like, how come you never wear a uniform? Right.
• We're all volunteer. Yeah. I know. Yeah. They they don't even know.
• that kind of like, having flexible participation
• options,
• the benefit of training and certification,
• community impact that people have as volunteers have and recognition,
• the camaraderie and purpose that people get
• on top of a 10% property tax,
• you know, deduction,
• right, and other benefits. Like, are there are so many benefits.
• I just think
• with with some
• greater marketing behind it, you know, can we can we help?
• You know?
• But do you do you feel like there's is is this a concern,
• or do you you guy you know, you feel
• really good about the ball level of volunteerism?
• as far as we're doing more with less every year. And guys are getting burned out. Some guys will be like, I'll see you in a month. It it's just there's too much going on in my personal life to be running
• Yeah. You know, from the dinner table to to a fire call. So some
• guys will take a little vacation,
• sadly, because it's it's a lot. Know? You have your regular life. You have your job.
• You wanna go on vacation, and then you run into the firehouse almost 500 times a year. Yeah.
• helps relieve the burden on others. You know? Of course. Right?
• So
• you know, we've done, I think, a lot of good things in terms of the low SAP program and trying to do kind of Yeah. You know,
• a policy perspective
• in in giving people initiatives.
• But all of the marketing
• for new recruits, and this goes to the EMS too, so we'll have a similar conversation,
• you know, really falls to the volunteers.
• Like, that that's also your job. Right? You're you're you're not not just a volunteer firefighter and chief in this case, but you're also trying to come up with a program
• to get people to join.
• And, you know, I I do think that there is an opportunity to invest in, you know, a marketing outreach campaign
• or something something along those lines just to see what other communities do. I mean, I know that you're a volunteer firefighter as well. Right? You know, what other communities do had and this is a statewide issue. Right? And this is not, you know, this is not just a Croton issue, but, you know, it it is a burden when you are not only a volunteer, but you also need to recruit volunteers.
• Right? I mean, that's like another level of burden. So I think that's a really good point. This weekend is New York recruit.
• I don't think we're have it actually have anything planned
• this year because it kinda just popped up.
• And essentially, we've we we would see people in the firehouse for a few hours during a period of time on a Saturday or Sunday to say, we're here. Come and visit with us and maybe talk about joining. Mhmm.
• At Summerfest,
• for the last four or five years, we've had a little tent up with applications available to recruit
• virtually every article that
• one of the guys published post fire,
• post incident,
• come join us kind of thing.
• And
• I can't tell you,
• in the last year,
• two or three new applicants other than the high school kids. Yeah. Because we get the high school kids involved.
• We get the juniors involved at 14,
• 14 to 16, and then once they become 16, they become a probie, and once they become 18, they have to join if they desire to into membership.
• Those numbers aren't staggering either.
• You
• know, forty years ago when I was chief, we had a 200 man roster,
• that kind of thing. You know, we're probably looking at 70 or 80 people at this point in time. And our population is increasing. And our population is increasing.
• And when we get right down to firefighting
• like the situation.
• They have couple of weeks ago,
• our department right now consists of about 40
• interior firefighters
• because they have trained to that level that they can go do search and rescue
• and extinguishment
• and you know, a whole lot of things that need to be done in a in a in a fire situation like that.
• So, I mean, yes, it's something that it's not just us.
• We go to communities now that are, you know, worse off than us to help out.
• The mutual aid system facilitates things
• but
• it it's kind of a cultural shift
• for people just don't have like the chief said, don't have the time and have. I know. So many other responsibilities or multiple jobs
• or and family that,
• you know, to give up hundreds of hours and that's what it comes down to.
• You know,
• is
• is a
• lot that
• and plus,
• you know, back,
• post World War two and through that period of time,
• you know, Chris is second generation. I'm second generation.
• We have members that are third generation
• all having to do with through families.
• You know, I have seven uncles that were all firefighters in Croton, that kind of thing.
• That that just is not
• you know, that is just not there anymore,
• you know, to the extent that we can pull from.
• It really is a different time.
• Whatever we can do, whatever we can Mhmm.
• Publish or say or promote would be great.
• It's just, I think, very difficult to convince people that
• it it's it's a it's a hazardous job. It does not
• you know, to get to the level that we need to have people at.
• Mhmm. You know? The the old adage is everybody's running out, we're running in. Mhmm. You know, that kind of thing. Yep. Quite a few of our members are not even from Kroger.
a a lot of guys that are outside of our district too. Mhmm. Yeah. They went to school here or they worked here or they have roots here, and
they stay with us. Well, you know, we we took another, I think, significant step last night on the on the question of making our any any affordable
• new affordable housing that we have in the village available to the first responders.
• And so it was a public hearing. Now we have some some more legislative steps, but I think we're gonna do that. Mhmm. Hopefully, that, over time, gets some of them back back into growth. Yeah.
• I've only been on the board a short time. We do a lot of studies. You know, we do you know, we we study a lot of important
• things,
• but this is very important.
• You know? I mean, I think this this could
• really
• shift, you know, cause a big structural shift in in our budget
• if
• we don't
• have a a a bigger kind of concerted effort around it.
• You know? And so,
• no, I
• think we I I I recommend that we carve out some
• budget and and explore, you know, how to how to best approach it with you in partnership,
• not, you know, because you're already doing great things. How can we kinda come over on the top and,
• you know,
• and help with that? And, you know, I know there are, like,
• agencies out there that do some pro bono work and maybe volunteerisms,
• you know, and fire you know, maybe there'd be,
• you know, some
• some part unique partnerships.
• You know, I know we're not
• supposed to be talking about always increasing the budget during while we're trying to stay in the budget mean, reality, right, is that we are a $113,000
• So, I mean, we have that month. We have flexibility on that front. If we wanna
• access that, we can remain under the cap. And
• we can access more, but that means taking money away from other programs or going above And, the
• you know, we can have that conversation
• probably in the budget recap session. Okay.
And I think that, you know, there's an opportunity. There is a volunteer firefighter sort of New York from a New York State level. Right? You know, and maybe it is just an explorer
• of how
• over the next
• year, right, as we hire a communications consultant, like, maybe there is an sort of an explore period of what what are some best practices
around it. Yep. Yeah. And we actually you know, the communications team, they're
• the next two videos that they're hoping to do is one with EMS showing off their new building. Oh, great. And then one with the firehouse showing off the work that's been done at Grand Street. So, you know, we are trying to to use that to Mhmm.
• You know, to to showcase
• showcase them. Yeah. Mhmm.
• You know, but,
• I mean,
• just to echo what the chief said, the the training
• has just, you know, basically in the past fifteen years, it's It's genuinely the killer. Yeah. And I mean, it's The I mean, the the entry level for
• That's incredible.
Yeah. And it's just very I mean, unless unless you are lucky enough to have them do it while they're in high school and they don't have as much responsibility,
• you know, I mean, for somebody in my age group, you know, who's working full time trying to pick up extra hours to save for a house or something like that. And then to say, oh, well, you have to go three nights in every and all day on Saturday for six months to training. I mean, it's just like
• Yeah. Yeah. It it's really and I mean, I we see it too in our firehouse. It's, you know, people come in and wanna join and then they find out what they actually have to do and then you never see them again.
• you know, the the 17,
• 18, 19, 20 year olds, 21, 22 through college,
• and then it it's fifty, sixty, 70. That gap of people in the thirty to forty year
• range
is virtually missing completely. Mhmm. It's a very barbell structure. Yep. Yep. Mhmm. And in in some respects,
• recruitment
• is is one issue. Retention is the other issue. So that's Two totally separate Yeah.
• and I know we had have had some conversations about the MTA
• and
• going to calls at the MTA yard,
• false
• alarms,
• alarm calls,
• Has has that improved at all when you get to the yard?
• Are they aware that you're,
• you know how's how's that going?
The they just had a training down there for us on Monday night, did a walk through of Building 6 A, B, And C. Oh, good. Which was nice.
• They
• they are receptive to the concerns. They're just trying to figure out a way to work through them with us. Okay.
• There's times it's a struggle down there, and then there's other times where it's
• we would love to see them get a a couple fire brigade guys or now they have union firefighters in in Grand Central.
• We'd love to see that come up here so they could handle all the little nonsense stuff. Yeah. But they're
• they're fighting that one pretty hard.
• which was Yes. Yeah. We've had multiple meetings with them, conversations. The result of, you know, of Yeah. Good results from that letter. So Yeah. Yes.
And and they're working to improve the the systems too because that was part of the problem. Mhmm. Yep. You know, you have a 150 year old railroad with legacy systems and they have brand new buildings,
• and things don't always match up. And
• they're they're doing the best they can right now with helping
• us. So we're it was a good training session. Good. Good.
• Also had one, comment on the fire department. She was commenting that the vehicle repairs came in at a $136,234
• in 2025
• against an $80,000
• budget.
• And,
• you know, that she was hoping that there would be some assurances that the fleet is genuinely in better shape and that we're unlikely to see another midyear
• revision.
• And, I mean, I'll just I'll start off and then the chiefs can comment just by saying that the the budget that's in vehicle repairs, it's almost it's almost kind of like a misnomer
• a little bit because the the money that's budgeted in vehicle repairs is largely for the preventative maintenance of the v that the vehicles undertake every year.
• And that's pretty much once a year. Yeah. Right. It's annual prevent preventive maintenance.
• And then there is some money in there if they need new tires or if they, you know, whatever it might be.
• But general like, if they do get involved in an accident or something like that that require repairs,
• we're usually able to put that through the insurance. Mhmm. And then we get reimbursed for the majority of that cost.
• And that's why, again, that's why you see the
• revised budget be different than the actual budget because, again, when we get those reimbursement checks from the insurance, we recognize the revenue
• and then we increase the expenditure line so that the account stays in balance. Mhmm. So,
• you know,
• that being said, the cost of vehicle repairs
• has increased exponentially.
so, you know, we're we're again, we're just trying to be steady here and increase you know, we increase this account by $5,000
• pretty much every year just to try to stay
• on top of on top of those costs.
• You have anything you wanna add to that? So so much of it is unforeseen.
• The
• the issue also goes with the more alarms we have to go to, the the more the trucks get used, the more miles are on them. It's it's definitely a
• toll on the rigs.
• And,
• just like at the Palmer Avenue fire, we had fire trucks from other towns coming to us. We called,
• you know, everybody around us to help us, and they call us. So we're also going out of town quite a bit with some of the rigs. Mhmm. And it's
• the the obviously, the cost of rigs went way up, and the cost of parts did as well. Yeah. So it's it's the it's just a
• wacky little route that it's taken, and it's it's totally out of our control, unfortunately. Yep. Yeah. Unless we can get DPW to get a machine up there to
fabricate some parts for us and yeah. And and that's actually that's a really good point, chief,
• because we did
• earlier this year, right, we we had a sit down with DPW and the and the chiefs to
• resume a practice that we had previously done where the Chiefs
• would work on I'm sorry. The the DPW
• would work on
• my the minor things that they can do on the apparatus
• and the chief scars in an effort to kind of reduce those costs. For for various reasons, that practice had stopped a number of years ago,
• and,
• you know, we wanted to restart it to try to rein in some of these costs because, you know,
• you send something out for an oil change and it costs $250
• when we have two mechanics on staff that can do it for whatever the quart of oil costs. Right? So
I'm gonna put in for I'm putting in for a big three d Brian, that's I know. I I I heard.
• I'm I'm gonna put in for a big three d printer, you know, for you to make those
• you know, we do have some older vehicles that are in the fleet. Right? The ladder truck will hopefully be replaced
• by the fall of next year. Yep. I believe so. So, you know, that will be you know, when we have a new piece of equipment, that should hopefully reduce any,
• you know, maintenance costs on that. Mhmm. You know, we just ordered the new one nineteens, and we're gonna be waiting a while for that one. But, you know, hopefully, within the next five years, most of the apparatus
• will be
• kind of on the newer side. And so the the
• maintenance cost hopefully will not be as as high. Yeah. So
Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You. Good. Thank you, chiefs. Have a good night. Night. Just if you guys can do us a favor, don't tell EMS about the 113,000.
• Leave that for us. Joe
Srini, please please stay. Police chief. Joe Srini, you stay. We have a few more meetings for you. John fortunately left Amazon right now.
• You wanna start off with any opening remarks?
• did go you know, it has got up as, you know, pretty much everyone's did.
• The really, the big thing that went up was the
• cost of the paid staff services
• that we that we have and the contracts that we have with Austin Ambulance. I
• believe, and Brian can probably attest to this better, that I have both the
• cost of the paid EMT
• and the cost of the
• paramedic fly car program that we participate in, both went up this year. Mhmm.
• So, you know, overall, our budget
• went up,
• know, looking just roughly looking at the numbers about, you know, $42,000,
• but 43,000
• of that was in,
• you know, basically personnel contracts. Yeah.
• Mhmm. The rest of, you know, the rest of our budget, we tried to keep either about the same
• or, you know, a little bit lower.
• You know, we lowered some of the budget lines.
• We did increase some of them where they went from zero to, you know, to an amount right now. But that was really just
• to kind of
• make sure that things were in the appropriate lines to begin with. Mhmm. They try to cut down on having to do line transfers.
• You know, our over you know, so our overall expenditures,
• like I said, didn't really
• for our operating stuff, didn't really go up at at all. They actually went down a little bit.
• But some like I said, you will notice some of the lines were zero last year. They, you know, they're they're now budgeted this year. But it's really just because we move stuff around now
• instead of having to move stuff money around later in budget transfers. Mhmm.
Yep. And, I mean, one of the one of the big changes, right, from last year to this year is actually you have a building now. We have a building. Right? So so there's buildings buildings and ground line back. Yeah. Right? So you have And putting putting the building aside as a building, because we'll we'll talk about that, I guess, during the capital program. But, operationally,
it's working well in terms of functions and, you know, people knowing where things are and what to do and all.
• you know, the
• there's a little bit of con
• I'd say 97%
• of the construction work is complete. Mhmm. Right. There's still a little bit more left
• mainly in
• in what would be, like, our washroom and our storage rooms. Mhmm.
• So we do have some stuff. We still have, you know, some stuff in our old storage room Right. At in the firehouse.
• So if we need equipment or that, you know, the personnel do have to walk Right. Down the hall to the other bay. Mhmm.
• You know, we are hoping to to get that, you know, all finished up, and then we can finish moving over the the rest of our stuff and Great. You know, kinda be almost separate with the exception of the elevator. Because there's, you know, there's a ribbon cutting in the future, you know, there as soon as we Right. As warm as we get a little little into the warmer months and, you know, get everything everything done, we'll But the the yeah. Now the majority of the the building, everything works great. Yeah. Everyone's have you know Looks fantastic. Enjoyed to be there, you know Yeah. It's Happy to be there. Yeah. Great.
• You know, it's it's better than
just about everything that we've had so far until now. Yeah. And just on the the specific question of the of the fly car, you know, obviously, the costs are going up a little bit. Are the are the calls going up significantly
• in terms of that that kind of
• medical need?
• a paramedic fly car program Yep. That we have with Aussie Ambulance.
• That's something that we've participated
• in for decades now.
• It's a tri community fly car, so it's sponsored by Croton, Briarcliffe,
• and ASSA.
• Here in Croton,
• I'd say, you know, overall, our call volume has continued to steadily go up,
• you know, and
• it's definitely gone up in the last five years. You know? Pre pre COVID, we're doing maybe 750
• calls a year. We're now doing over a thousand.
• You know? And it's it's been steady, though, between, like, a 1,200
• a year over the last couple of years.
• Majority of those calls, the fly card does get dispatched to.
• And sometimes they're needed and sometimes they're not needed. You know, sometimes the we get there and the information that we got from dispatch or from the caller
• is, you know, different than what we actually find.
• And the paramedic services aren't actually needed. The bay you know, the patient ends up getting transported by just the the BLS crew Right. That we have here in Where
• the where it's really helped in terms of
• decreasing what the flight hire does have to, you know, transport for us Yep. Was the addition of the second EMT that we started hiring
• Monday through Friday.
• Because prior to that because it's only been in existence almost a year and a half now. Yeah.
• Prior to that, a lot of the times
• during the Monday through Friday daytime working hours
• when it's hard to get some of the volunteers to show up,
• our one paid EMT
• and then
• the flight car paramedic, whether ALS services were needed or not Right. Were completing the crew to transport the patient. Yep.
• You know, having the two EMTs during the daytime is cut down on that.
• So it overall has been able to,
• you know, free up the paramedic
• when they're not needed or required to take care of that patient to either help with a second call here in Croton or
• help out with,
• you know, the other jurisdictions that it covers.
• I guess, in January, I was just astonished to see the numbers of the
• of the cadets or the the
• young the young that there's actually a waiting list. There Yes. There's actually our youth core is
• really. I It's it's was moving just to see those Yeah. I was gonna say, we did
• in the last couple years, we did try to cap it at, I believe it was 25.
• Yeah.
• This year,
• I believe,
• we've actually
• gone over that. Yep. Just because of the number of people that were on the wait list. Mhmm.
• They used to we the the kids used to come over on just Tuesday nights. Now
• we
• we have them over there both Monday and Tuesday.
• They don't have to make both nights,
• but at least, you know, it opens it up a little bit more where there's a little bit more time
for for some of the youth youth court to come over. And and, of course, it's very interesting to see they they have these experiences
• in high school, and then eventually,
• they're going on to college. But a lot of them are going into the medical field in one form or another in college.
Yeah. Which is great. The the few that I talked to at at the lunch, I said, this is great, but just come on back to Croton when you're when you're finished. You know? So so EMS in in general,
• without, you know, our kids starting at 14, Tim is the fire department with the youth corps,
• is
• usually
• a stepping stone for a lot of people to go to med school. Yeah. Mhmm. Because,
• you know, especially if they
• end up getting their their stadium tea or something like that,
• It's just something that they can then go ahead and put on their resume
• and their applications for med school that they have some type of medical experience
• that, you know, they've been able you know, they can show experience with talking with patients
• and experience with stuff like that. Yeah. So just in general,
• both volunteer and
PDMS is a large stepping stone for people to go to medical school. Very high percentage, at least in the in the in the younger group, a very high percentage of women. I don't know if it's fifty fifty, but it looked like that to me.
• probably,
• at this point,
• probably about 75
• females in the Yeah. For the most part. If not more. Oh,
• what we have in the village staffing
• is where there's one EMT that's on
• twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Mhmm. They do twelve hour shifts, 7AM to 7PM and 7PM to 7AM.
• We also have a second EMT
• that works six a to six p,
• Monday through Friday.
• What that does, as I said, you know, mentioned before, just helps out with,
• you know, the to kinda, like, workday times when when the when we have less volunteers around. Mhmm.
• You know, a lot of evenings, weekends,
• because we do have that other pay DMT there,
• it does you know, we are able to complete a crew and occasionally even get a second crew available
• depending upon who's around if we need to with within the volunteers.
• Because the the pay person is both an EMT and a driver, so we only have to find one other person who's either an EMT or a driver Mhmm. To then help complete that crew.
• Ossining EMS and the Mid Hudson Ambulance District.
• And so they they actually hire the employees and and send them to us. Mhmm. And then we just we pay them a monthly
• contractual fee every month. So there so the EMTs are not technically employees. Correct. They're not employees.
• I okay. Thank you. Yep.
And I I actually I I knew this, but now forgot. But on the on the fly car, is is that a flat fee or we we pay by the incident? No. So we pay a flat fee for that. Flat fee. Yeah. And so the the contract is actually expiring at the May. Right. And so there was a about a 10% increase in that contract starting June 1. Yeah. And I I know that there there were our our our
• insurance reimbursements
• were encouraging, I thought, at a certain point is continuing to Yeah. Do
We've we've the insurance reimbursements are have done very well this year. They have for the past couple of years.
• And, you know, based on the
• feedback
• that we've received from Proclaim, which manages the billing for for EMS,
• Ossining, Briarcliffe, and Croton, the three groups that make up the
• the
• paramedic
• or the fly car. Right? We've all raised our billing rates in on the recommendation of Proclaim. So, you know, just to be just to be competitive with what everybody else is doing in the area. So we should still continue to see those,
• you know, those numbers come in strong.
• Thank you. Is the fly car an asset that we own? No. So that's owned by Ossining. Oh, as well? By yeah. Uh-huh. So we we contract with them and pay them the that's paid semiannually,
• and then they respond on the calls. Mhmm.
Have we ever done the analysis to see do we save money if we owned our own fly car?
• Or
• You know, actually, trustee one of trustee slipins,
• her her only question with regards to EMS, right, was about the paid
• line and, you know, whether the village has benchmarked the contracts against what comparable municipalities are paying. Mhmm.
• You know,
• the village manager at Briarcliff had
• done an analysis
• a couple of years ago.
• And
• first of all, there's not that many,
• EMS agencies out there that are actually stable enough that they can, you know, provide staffing to other communities. Right? So,
• there's really not too many groups that would even be able to submit a proposal if you wanted to call it that.
• But
• the analysis that he did, you know, he did a RFP and was a and got two responses,
• and OVAK was much lower than
• the other
• agency that submitted
• Mhmm. A proposal.
• So, I mean,
• you know, unfortunately,
• and this is again as a result of the pandemic.
• Right? The the hourly rates for EMTs have increased substantially. Right? We were Mhmm. Previously, we were paying somewhere in the area of, like, 24 or $25 an hour in,
• like, 20 in 2020, 2021 to EMTs,
• and we're now paying, you know, $45 an hour. Right? So the their hourly rates have just increased substantially
• and so and then in tandem with that, we've added sixty
• hours
• a week to the to the budget. Right? So that's, you know, prior to
• January 2025, we didn't we didn't have that cost.
• So,
• you know, but
• the village has responsibility
• to make sure that if somebody calls 911, somebody's going to respond. Right? Yeah. So we had to,
• you know, we had to do what was necessary to to support EMS.
• right now, our average response time is
• just about
• eight minutes, which is kind of right along with, like, the national average. Okay.
• You know, obviously,
• it's
• better within the village than within the town of Cortland because we do covers, you know, parts of the town of Cortland.
• The thing that helps us with our town of Cortland response
• with Quaker Bridge being down is at least the ambulance corps comes out of Harmon Firehouse.
• So it's on
• that southern side of the village anyway.
• So since we have to go through Crotonville to get over there.
• You know? So that doesn't really,
• you know, impact that a whole lot, but just you know, we do have quite a large area.
• But, also, what helps improve that is having the paid staff
• in the building. Mhmm. Right? So they're in the building.
• The volunteers,
• if it was just the volunteers, would have to drive from their houses to the building to get the ambulance to drive to the car. Mhmm. Right?
• Which just
• because of traffic and everything else, just kinda adds to that response time.
• You know? So right now,
• because we have the two paid people on during the day,
• they, you know, they they
• a full crew. So they'll respond pretty much right away. Mhmm. You know, they have to walk down the stairs, and that's about it. And they can, you know, they can get on the road.
• Even though we have our system set up right now, though,
• even if the pay DMT
• is by themselves,
• whether it be a night an overnight or a weekend, something like that,
• that,
• they are to immediately respond to the call.
• And then our volunteers then respond to the scene to meet them there to help complete the crew that way. This way,
• it gets
• the, you know, the e m the the trained EMT and the ambulance to the whoever needs the help right away. Mhmm.
• And then even if for some reason
• we don't have a volunteer responding immediately to help complete that crew,
• at least the person needing help was get able to get the help they need. Right.
• And we can then call for, if it's needed, a paramedic or
• a mutual aid ambulance or something like that, but at least that trained person is on scene to provide the care that's needed.
• general general awareness out there. What what do we know so far about the county study, and and where where do you think that might go?
• the bit of feedback that everyone started that the county has started with
• is
• really
• just to try to open up conversations between
• the village, you know, village boards
• or, you know, to board of directors or whoever or kinda oversees the ambulance course Yep.
• To try to make sure that everyone who's overseeing it and kinda, like, funding it, make sure that they are aware of what's going on
• in terms of, you know, like,
• the capabilities of the of the agency are,
• whether or not the things that the agency are doing are working, not working,
• but just have that open dialect and conversation
• about, you know, this is where we are now. This is where we're trying to go later on. This is what, you know, we're able to provide. Is there something else that you guys, you know, want us to provide that would you you could help us get to, stuff like that.
• You know, and I know we're not talking about it tonight, but even
• in our
• the majority of our capital budget right now, requests
• are for some new equipment to try to help improve
• the abilities that we have as a, as an agency
• to the care that we can give to the village.
• You know, New York State has recently
• added
• some different capabilities
• to the basic EMT level
• that previously were just done by paramedics or advanced care providers.
• So we're you know, we we had budgeted or, you know, asked to permit a proposal to try to head in that direction to try to help improve
• the level of care that we can
we can provide even as a basic service. Yep. And in in our legislative program that we send up to Albany from the village, we we put in there on some of this EMS
• stuff,
• state of New York, you can start paying for it as well. So
• we'll we'll see what happens.
• Yeah. That's that's unfortunately even not just to relay the EMS. That happens to be a common Yeah. A common theme Yep. Where the city of New York implements
• different mandates and then Exactly. The village has to figure out how to pay for them.
• recruitment
• efforts, and bringing on, you you know,
• new talent and,
• you know, you're you're building a a great legacy there of future leaders
• and, you know, thank you for Oh, you're welcome. All you do.
• and Yeah. Hopefully, that will garner more recruits.
• Hopefully.
• Yeah.
Thanks. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yep. Thanks, Bill. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Thank you.
• Alright. Guess Wish the fire department
• had a path like that, you know, volunteers for
• Yep. You know?
• Yeah. We're still yeah. The fire department does have some
• explorers. That's what they call their 14 to 16 year olds. And then the PAFs, the probationary
• members.
• So, you know, but
• as with lots of things, right, the membership is not as high as it once was. So, you know, I think kind of like
• and and maybe I will I'll talk to the chief about this, you know, Scott Marsh, our DPW general foreman went to do that Tiger Tuesday program.
• You know what? I mean, it's not mean, I I guess it could be a career path if somebody wanted to become a city firefighter or something like that, you know.
• They could also Decent number of,
• you know, members of the volunteer fire department who are professional firefighters. Yes. Absolutely. Mhmm. Yeah. So they can, you know, maybe it's a good idea to see if they can go into the school and
Yeah. Then talk to the kids. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So And that's that's that's a not not fully appreciated fact. A lot of our volunteer
• EMTs
• are also volunteer firefighters.
• Mhmm. Mhmm. So I crossover.
• Yes.