New Paltz town supervisor urges other entities to contribute more toward rescue squad. By William J. Kemble, news@freemanonline NEW PALTZ >> Town Board members are ready to help the New Paltz Rescue Squad overcome an expected $212,000 operating deficit by encouraging the village, SUNY New Paltz and the New Paltz school district to contribute more to the service. At a board meeting Thursday, town Supervisor Susan Zimet said the proposed town budget will include $150,000 in funding for the service, an increase of $4,043, or 2.77 percent. Another $25,000 will be set aside to match increases in contributions from other sources. “The money will be there, and, eventually, it can be moved over when everybody feels comfortable,” she said. Zimet, arguing that the village government, school district and the State University of New York College at New Paltz should contribute more, said SUNY officials have been reluctant to recognize the impact its students have on the town’s ambulance and police budgets. The reality is that everybody knows that we would not have the level of police in this community if we didn’t have bars that were open until 4:30 in the morning and all the college kids go down there,” Zimet said. Town officials said SUNY does provide funding for fuel, but the amount does not cover the expense of calls to the college. “The governor comes up with $10 million to give to the college to build a new facility ... while we’re sitting here ... trying to keep those kids safe,” she said. “Because of this budget and how we’re trying to hold taxes down, if we have to take ads out in Newsday telling parents not to send their kid to New Paltz because we can no longer protect your kids downtown, because the taxpayers can’t afford it, that’s what we’ll have to do.” SUNY New Paltz spokeswoman Melissa Kaczmarek in an email Friday said the college donated about $17,500 in fuel to the rescue squad and plans to increase the amount by an additional 500 gallons in each of the next two years. “Additionally, SUNY New Paltz provided close to $8,000 worth of fuel to the New Paltz Fire Department and nearly $16,000 to the town of New Paltz/Ulster County Area Transit LOOP bus service,” she said. “The college values the vital services our local ambulance corps provides to students and staff, and the local community.” The number of ambulane calls to the college was not immediately available, but Kaczmarek said it “constituted only a small percentage of overall call volume. Given the relatively small number of college-related calls compared to the greater town and village, the donation amount for fuel is more than generous and greatly exceeds the cost to service SUNY New Paltz.” Town Councilman Jeff Logan, meanwhile, said he was troubled by the lack of some financial information in material provided to the board but available through tax forms. In 2012, for example, he said the squad realized a $196,000 return on investments, and had a “fund balance of about a million in hard dollars. “That would include your investments,” he said. “I guess I am befuddled by how I look at five years and always showing gains, which is great, but now I get a (profit and loss statement) and all of a sudden it’s showing a tremendous loss.” Squad members responded that the figures cited by Logan were from reserve accounts used to plan equipment purchases and property repairs. “What is not included in the budget is the income that’s generated from our savings (and) our investments,” squad President Ted Reiss said. Lauren Rooney, the squad’s business administrator, said the squad will use the return on investments if necessary. “We could use capital reserves to balance that budget,” she said. “We could take $212,000 out of our investments and balance our budget. It affects our capital reserves.” Reiss noted that the squad follows industry standards that recommend having six to 24 months of operating expenses on hand. “We do because, 25-odd years ago, we were told by the Town Board to get our finances in order and we have,” he said. “The main resolution to that problem was instituting a revenue recovery program. ... We do have a substantial fund balance, because we have substantial liabilities and obligations.” The budget would be about $130,000 higher if volunteers were not participating with the squad, Reiss said. “We have over 60 volunteers who form the backbone of our service,” he said. “In an economic downturn, or other contingency, we could lose volunteers to social change. We need to be prepared for the contingency and be able to replace staff quickly. dailyfreeman/general-news/20141115/new-paltz-town-supervisor-urges-other-entities-to-contribute-more-toward-rescue-squad
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:34:50 +0000
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