Chester signs ambulance service contract with Empress

The town of Chester has signed a monthly contract with Empress ambulance service to cover both the town and village of Chester. The cost to taxpayers is approximately $74,000 per month. The hope is response times will decrease from an average of 17 minutes to under 10 minutes.

The town signed a monthly contract because officials hope to transition into a hybrid contract where Empress would provide staffing and the town would buy its own ambulance. In this hybrid contract the town would keep a portion of the billing revenue, offsetting costs.

The contract went into effect on February 1, as the announcement was made at a special January 31 town board meeting.

Other business

At the meeting the town scheduled two work sessions, one for February 13 at 4:30 p.m. to discuss the future of the SLPAC and one on February 28 at 1 p.m. for several other matters.

The town board passed a resolution authorizing the application for a lot line improvement conveyance, giving about 0.86 acres of property to the Windridge Home Owners Association, who in exchange will take sole responsibility to perform improvements to the Lily Pond Dam, which will cost over $800,000. The exchange of land is subject to a permissive referendum.

The board authorized $292,068 to be spent on a single axle truck purchase for the Highway Department. The money had been budgeted. The board also allocated $27,692 for a control panel at Surrey Meadows. Installation will cost between $2,500 and $5,000, putting the cost of the project far below the $50,000 that had been budgeted.

The board moved forward with a request to rent the SLPAC for use between April 7 and May 4 by a film company Reimagined Productions Inc, who increased their offer to rent from $40,000 to $45,000. The supervisor is still waiting for a final version of the contract to hit his desk.