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Ambulance/Fire Talks Continue, Between Hornell, Hartsville, Canisteo

February 9, 2023

Emergency Medical Services talks continue. Hartsville Town Supervisor Kriste Gerhard says both Canisteo Mayor Monica Recktenwald and Hornell Mayor John Buckley, want contracts for the ambulance service, which Hornell and Canisteo provide for Hartsville residents. Canisteo also provides Fire Dept service to Hartsville. The call for ambulance service goes to Canisteo first, and if Canisteo cannot provide ambulance service, Hornell is the backup and Hornell takes the ambulance call. According to the Hartsville Town supervisor, Hornell’s contract calls for the Hartsville Town Board to pay $654.00 per ambulance call, to be paid within 30 days of the ambulance call. Also the patient would be required to file payments with their own insurance company. Hartsville’s supervisor also says, Canisteo Mayor Recktenwald wants $49,000 a year from the Hartsville Town Board for ambulance service. Supervisor Gerhard also says, both Mayor Buckley and Mayor Recktenwald want the contracts by April. The Hartsville supervisor says Hartsville does it’s budget in November, so that, according to Hartsville Supervisor Gerhard, is making it so Hartsville will have to dip into reserve funds in order to pay for ambulance service. “We do have a contingency fund,” Gerhard tells WLEA. “That will help with paying Hornell, it should cover up to about $15,000 to $20,000, but that dips into Hartsville’s reserve funds that we were trying to plan for.”

Mayor Buckley says Hornell has been having productive conversations with Hartville, and Hornell hopes to be able to partner with them. Buckley says he’s hopeful that things can be worked out with Hartsville.

We were unable to reach Canisteo Mayor Monica Recktenwald by this posting, but when we hear from the Canisteo mayor, we’ll get her comments aired immediately.

Update – 11:55
From Mayor Monica Recktenwald:

The Village of Canisteo has provided Fire and Ambulance Service for the Town of Hartsville for several years. Upon renewing this year’s contract, the Town of Hartsville requested to have their contract remain at the same level from the previous year with no increase, and pay a monthly prorated fee to continue service through March until they could meet with the City of Hornell. The City of Hornell gave all local municipalities an April 1st deadline to contract with them. Canisteo agreed to Hartsville’s requests, with no increase for service and continue to provide service without a signed contract for their residents. The Village of Canisteo will continue to support Hartsville as we all are navigating through this difficult time in ensuring we can provide EMS services to our residents and neighbors.


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