Ambulance award program vote from noon to 9 p.m. today
Today is the day for voters to weigh in on the Town Board’s proposed Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP) to encourage people to volunteer for the ambulance squad and keep those who already have done so active.
Voting will be from noon to 9 p.m. at Town Hall.
The program would give ambulance corps members a retirement package similar to the one Fire Department members receive.
“Riding members” of the town ambulance squad — those who respond to calls in a timely manner — who are 65 or older would receive $30 a month for each year they have served after 2011 and $20 a month for each year they served during the five years before 2011.
To qualify, volunteers would have to earn a minimum number of points each year for training and the number of calls to which they respond. To be vested in the plan, a member would have to serve a minimum of five years. Someone joining the corps but leaving before five years wouldn’t receive any benefit; the money paid into the plan on his or her behalf would be distributed to qualified participants.
A lump sum would be paid to a member who becomes permanently disabled prior to age 65 or to the members’ beneficiary if he or she dies prior to reaching 65.
The estimated cost of the program for those volunteers who qualify may be as much as $100,000 in 2013 or about $5,000 per riding member, according to a legal notice in the July 26 issue of the Reporter. The cost includes an annual administrative fee of $3,500. The cost is estimated to decrease by about $30,000 after five years, when the amount owed for service before 2012 will have been fully paid.
The Town Board formally proposed the program in June by a unanimous vote. Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty recently called on voters to support the plan, saying that volunteers render a service that saves taxpayers the much higher cost of maintaining a professional ambulance squad.
