Town of Lancaster & Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corp reach service agreement.

[Lee Chowaniec]

RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Lancaster hereby approves the Agreement, as presented, between the Town of Lancaster and the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Inc., for the purpose of operating, conducting, and maintaining an emergency ambulance service for the residents of the Town of Lancaster and hereby authorizes the Supervisor to execute this agreement, with approval from the Town Attorney, which will cover the period July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028.

During the town board work session on April 21, 2025, Disaster Coordinator Ron Rozler reported to the board that the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps (LVAC) has provided quality ambulance services over the past four months.

Rozler: “There have been very few instances where ambulance service was not available. We have confidence that it is going to continue when we reach an extended agreement. I was hoping to report tonight that we did reach an agreement. Our attorney and I met with LVAC’s attorney and thought we had a majority of things worked out. We sent them a cleaned-up contract and late this afternoon I got a reply back with a number of things they are requesting. I am not sure where that came from. Our Attorney, Jennifer Strong and I are going to meet with them tomorrow morning. We will review those changes, see where we are at, and whether we are ready to move forward.”

The main issue with the contract at the beginning was the number of ambulances LVAC would provide. We kind of got away from that and came up with performance management. We agreed upon, so far, on 96% performance – that they would respond to 96% of the calls for service. If they failed to meet that severe financial penalties were in place. We are basing that 96% performance number on what they are telling us what they are able to do and have been doing.

We are pretty confident that with the 96% performance history we are going to get that from them, or better. If not, there are stiff financial penalties attached. It takes it off the town’s shoulders on how many ambulances to provide. It gives LVAC the ability to decide how many ambulances have to be provided to achieve a 96% performance rate. Hopefully, we can get this wrapped up by the next meeting.

[Lee Chowaniec]

The Town Board of the Town of Lancaster unanimously approved the Agreement, as presented, between the Town of Lancaster and the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Inc., for the purpose of operating, conducting, and maintaining an emergency ambulance service for the residents of the Town of Lancaster and hereby authorizes the Supervisor to execute this agreement, with approval from the Town Attorney, which will cover the period July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028.

Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps (LVAC) President Chester Popoilkowski addressed the board at the closing comment session declaring that LVAC is pleased entering the new contract with the town. “This means that LVAC will continue to provide best-in-class service for the residents of Lancaster as it has for the past 72 years. We also want to thank the town and pledge to the residents that our sole mission is to continue serving our neighbors and their families whenever they need us."

The Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps was formed initially as the Lancaster Town Police Ambulance Service. Residents at the time were concerned due to delayed response times of ambulances coming from the nearby city of Buffalo, New York.

In the early 1970s the Lancaster Town Police Department, no longer wishing to be in the ambulance service, allowed its members to form the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps. In 1975, the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps were incorporated as a separate entity. However, the police department & ambulance corps have an excellent working relationship till this day.

As of the summer of 2016, due to AMR (American Medical Response) cancelling their contracts, the Town of Alden and Village of Alden are now covered by the LVAC. LVAC is the primary ambulance service for the Town of Alden and primary ALS backup for the Village of Alden as their Fire Department operates two BLS ambulances. In late 2017, Lancaster Ambulance became the primary EMS response service to the New York State Thruway from the Transit Road (Depew) ramp to the Erie County Line eastbound.

Disaster Coordinator Ron Rozler and Town Attorney Jennifer Strong were instrumental in getting the new agreement established.