Ambulances will continue to be dispatched by New Windsor
When the Town Board met on December 20, several matters of important business took place.
Supervisor Josh Wojehowski gave a quick update on the work of New Windsor EMS (Cornwall EMS) since the transition to that service in July — “they have a 100% response rate for both ALS and BLS,” he said. The board also unanimously approved continuing using the New Windsor Police Department as dispatch for the EMS service at a cost of $13,000 annually.
“I think this is the best way forward,” the supervisor said, calling it “the most efficient way to dispatch ambulances here.”
Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson residents will continue to call 911 when they have any type of emergency. Medical calls, as they are now, will continue to be transferred to the New Windsor dispatch unit (Base 5) by the county’s 911 dispatch, so as to get the right units to the address needed. While this service costs the town the additional money, Wojehowski said if they didn’t go with New Windsor for this service it would probably cost more than that to update emergency vehicle radios so as to provide the best service.
In another matter, the Town Board will spend some of the next several months talking about the types of financing the town will use as the board embarks on a plan to purchase all of Cornwall’s street lights from Central Hudson.
The board members authorized the acquisition of the street lights at the meeting, and the matter now falls to New York State’s Public Service Commission to approve.
There was a lengthy discussion about the process at the board’s December 20 regular business meeting. The board has a proposal from Real Term Energy in front of it to assist in the process. The town will eventually not only own the street light heads — LED, which will save on electricity costs — but add ‘smart’ sensors on them.
At the meeting, Council-woman Virginia Scott said the board has reached out to other area officials about the process of purchasing the lights, however Cornwall appears, she said, to be the first to work with Central Hudson (as opposed to Orange & Rockland) on the conversion.
In other matters from that meeting, the board appointed a full-time assistant building inspector, John Hand, to start on January 3, at an annual salary of $72,500. “Another full-time person in the Building Department will help make the town safer and provide better service to residents,” Wojehowski said.
Wojehowski also updated the community on several matters:
— He said he would be meeting with each of the board members to talk about their committee/liaison assignments for 2023; and after discussion, the board will continue to meet on the second and third Tuesdays of each month, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
— He also said that at the first January meeting the board will announce the winners of Cornwall’s holiday decoration contest. There were eight entries, he said, and several will receive gift cards as their prizes.
— The supervisor read Police Chief Todd Hazard’s monthly report for November, noting that there were 628 calls for service during that month, and the town’s police vehicles were driven a total of 7276 miles. Officers responded to 34 motor vehicle accidents, made seven arrests, wrote 32 tickets, handled seven animal calls, seven domestic incidents and five suspicious vehicles.
