Hurley’s town board has unanimously adopted a $4-million general and highway budget.
It agreed to use $225,000 in surplus funds to offset an expected $450,000 expense to get a new ambulance district started. Michael Wentland of Glenford objected to the large tax increase that would have resulted if taxpayers had to foot the bill for the entire $450,000. He also said he was rushed, claiming that EMTs had told him the town should have worked with other communities.
“They said, if Hurley was smart, they would work with their neighboring towns for a shared-service agreement where we can split the cost,” Wentland said. He said Hurley’s call volume is relatively low and services could be shared, at least temporarily.
Town supervisor Mike Boms said the town has tried communicating with other towns.
“We asked Ulster, we asked Kingston, we asked Rosendale and Hurley,” Boms said. “We asked all four towns. We got together with Everett Erickson from Ulster County FEMA. Fact is that we have 660 calls in the Town of Hurley. That’s two a day, approximately. Ulster has 2200 calls a year. That’s about seven a day. If all four of us went in together with two ambulances, which is what they were proposing, those two ambulances would be sitting in Ulster, because that’s where most of the calls are.”
The cost to the Town of Hurley would have been the exact same price. $450,000, argued Boms. “With the 450 [thousand], we’re ensuring those two ambulances that we contract will be in the Town of Hurley every call.”
There are only seven EMTs in West Hurley and two in Old Hurley.
“They don’t have enough volunteers to do it. They cannot do it any longer,” Boms said.
Boms said everything that could be done about the lack of volunteers was done.
“In mid-September, we sent out postcards to all the taxpayers telling them about the EMS, stating all the facts that were there,” he said. “We stated also a public hearing on October 8. We advertised this in the paper. We had it on our Facebook page. We had it on website. The only thing we didn’t do, we didn’t skywrite it. I don’t know what else to say. We can’t go knocking on everybody’s door.”
Councilmember Tim Kelly felt $450,000 was a good number to start the district.
“The reality of it, is 450 [thousand] in all the presentations that have been made to us, seems like a prudent number to establish the ambulance service,” Kelly said. “Start with that amount, so that they have that to run the operations. They’re receiving two ambulances fully stocked from the fire districts.”
With the use of $225,000 in surplus to offset the burden of the new district, the entire tax levy, with all special districts including library, fire, lighting and the new ambulance service, will be $4,392,607, an increase of $300,962, or 7.4 percent over 2024.
The general and highway levy is $2,398,679, up $51,418, or 2.19 percent from 2024.
The general, highway and ambulance district levies combined was over the tax cap, which required an override by the town board.
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