“I “I’ve raised the issue of ambulance service at City Hall several times, and I know the previous supervisor started looking into it, but it’s a tough nut to crack,” said Debbie Dougherty, a councilwoman and chair of Hurley’s safety committee, whose father founded the predecessor, the local rescue squad. “I drove the ambulance for several years, me and my husband, and then we started traveling for IBM,” she said. “So we eventually got away from that. So for me, making sure we have ambulance services is a very personal thing.”

The establishment of a taxing district for Hurley’s comprehensive emergency services will most likely help stem the flood of unanswered calls and the rapid decline in volunteers.

In January, after being appointed to fill a vacancy on the city council, Dougherty went to work talking to the Hurley and West Hurley fire departments. All were supportive.

“The emergency services are basically in crisis everywhere, not just here,” she said. “Everywhere, in the state, in the district, in the states, at the federal level.”

West Hurley is luckier than Old Hurley, she said. “They have a few more paramedics, but they have the same problem.”

In Old Hurley, only two or three volunteers respond to the majority of calls.

The town of Hurley’s proposal is part of a trend to pay for all or part of ambulance services, Dougherty noted. Neighboring Marbletown has made the switch, as has Olive. Woodstock recently decided to add four paid paramedics to its volunteer ambulance crew.

Dougherty assembled an 11-member EMS subcommittee of the newly formed Safety Committee, which meets every two weeks. Ultimately, it was decided that a paid crew was the best solution.

“We really need to decide on a paid service in Hurley,” she said. “We’re not going to contract with anyone. We’re just going to start our own nonprofit, paid service.”

The city decided to use leftover Covid-era American Rescue Plan funds to pay for the work of Terry Hannigan, an attorney specializing in ambulance services.

“What better way to use the money than to provide emergency care to all the residents of the city,” Dougherty said. “So we all agreed that we should start doing that.”

The goal is to form the district within one year.

The city needs a board to run the service. Dougherty has already found a director.

The ambulance service is billed to the insurance companies through a company, and the city covers the remaining costs of the ambulance journeys after deducting the insurance payments.

The city will likely purchase the two existing ambulances from the Hurley and West Hurley fire departments, and the taxing district will then be responsible for their maintenance and replacement.

Hurley’s operation is limited to basic life support (BLS), eliminating the need for paramedics. Because Hurley is close to Kingston, the hope is that most patients can be transported to hospital before advanced life support is required.

“It could still happen that we get two calls at the same time and have to rely on each other’s help,” she said.

The details of a paid ambulance service will be explained in a presentation at the City Council workshop meeting on August 13 at 6 p.m. at the West Hurley Fire Station, 24 Wall Street.

“I would love for everyone in Hurley to come along,” she said. Every household in Hurley will be reminded of the meeting by mail.

“I don’t want anyone to get their tax bill and say I didn’t know about it,” she said.

A public hearing will follow in September.

Still to be calculated are the costs per taxpayer, which Dougherty says should be minimal, as well as the administrative and start-up costs of setting up a fee-based ambulance service.

Dougherty said it will be a gradual transition.

“We will never allow anyone to leave the service,” she said. “Our firefighters and volunteers are 100 percent heroes. They are dedicated.”