Corps approves contract, lease with village

After several months of tense negotiations, members of the Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps approved a new contract with the village last month, as well as a lease for a building at 9A Hempstead Ave. that will serve as the agency’s headquarters.

Village Trustees John O'Brien and Patricia Canzoneri-Callahan — who represented the village in the negotiations — said that the 10-year agreement, signed March 16, is a major step forward, establishing new standards for the corps’ performance and greater financial protection for the village.

The ambulance corps and the village board have been trying since August to finalize a lease agreement that would allow the corps to make a long-awaited move into a headquarters. Though the negotiations hit several snags, including a short-lived standstill in January, members of both groups, including corps President Joe Karam and Canzoneri-Callahan, continued to meet.

Trustees previously told the Herald that the delay was partly attributable to the village’s refusal to pay the corps’ entire operating budget, as it has for the past 43 years. The corps’ services are utilized by those who live outside the village — particularly in Malverne Park Oaks, North Lynbrook and North Valley Stream, which are unincorporated areas of the Town of Hempstead. Because the corps is not a village agency, the village is not authorized to use tax money to fund those services.

Canzoneri-Callahan said last week that the issue is addressed in the new contract. “If 90 percent of calls are in Malverne and 10 percent go to other areas, we will pay 90 percent of operating expenses — medical supplies, training costs,” she explained. “We’ve agreed to pay them for a percentage of operating costs based on how many calls are in and out of Malverne. If it’s all Malverne, we’ll pay for [all] of it.”

Another delay in finalizing the contract was the village’s attempt to incorporate performance standards into it. It was determined at an August work session that the corps did not meet its contractual obligation to provide 100 percent coverage — it covered 78 percent of Malverne calls in 2010 and only 65 percent over the previous three years — so trustees decided that it would make sense to rework the agency’s goals.

“In the past, the contract said 100 percent coverage, 24-7,” Canzoneri-Callahan said. “It’s just not realistic, and they weren’t providing it. They couldn’t give us that service because they’re a volunteer organization.”

Of the new agreement, she added, “They need to be in service to cover 69 percent of the calls during the day, and 79 percent of calls at night. We’re giving them a building, and we’re starting with [those numbers] for now, and saying, ‘In two years you need to get better.’”

Canzoneri-Callahan emphasized how essential the corps’ services are, explaining that although the village has had a volunteer fire department since 1911, it has never had an ambulance service. Prior to the 1970s, she said, the village relied on county ambulances.

But, she said, after years of slow response time from the county, she said, the Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps was formed by former village officials.

“They have provided service to residents since the early 1970s,” Canzoneri-Callahan said. “Their response time is phenomenal. They respond in less than five minutes. That’s why the board is very, very supportive of their efforts, and we want to make sure they’re in service more often.”

O’Brien said that although the negotiations were protracted, the agreement will ultimately result in better emergency service for residents. “We wanted the best for the village; they wanted the best deal for the ambulance corps,” he said. “At times we’d think, this is good, and they’d say, ‘We don’t like this so much.’ … But it worked out fairly well.”

“They’re going to get a building that will help them, and … that will be good for residents,” O’Brien continued. “Nassau County ambulance service charges. The Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps does not charge.”

Canzoneri-Callahan described the lease as a standard agreement, much like a landlord-tenant lease. “They must have insurance on the building, and they can’t make modifications to it without letting us know,” she said. “They have a home base where they can house their ambulances, and will be able to have volunteers who live outside the village stay there and respond to calls [during] the day.

“Contractually, we have a place for them to be,” she continued, “but more importantly, this gives them the opportunity to recruit more people to volunteer so that the coverage will be more than they have now.”

Trustee Michael Bailey described the corps as an essential service provider for the community. “For residents, the contract is a direct link to better, faster ambulance availability,” he said. “When the Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps isn’t in service, the Nassau County ambulance is the backup. When the county ambulance has to come in, the lay time is longer. And, by the village negotiating with the ambulance corps, it’s a whole lot less expensive.”

Canzoneri-Callahan said that because the headquarters is a commercial building, the Nassau County fire marshal must approve it. “They chose to install a kitchen, cabinets, a stove,” she said of the corps. “If you have a stove, you’re required to have a fire-suppression system. [The marshal] needs to sign off on the system installed in the building before the corps can occupy it.”

Bailey added that the facility’s alarm system and smoke detectors must also be up to code.

Otherwise, Cazoneri-Callahan said, the contract is set to go. “We need a date for them to occupy, that way we can put a date in the agreements,” she said. “We’re hoping for May 1 for them to move in.”

Karam had not returned calls for comment as the Herald went to press on Monday.