Please find the most up to date notices from the Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson.
Cornwall New York Forward Local Planning Committee (LPC) Meeting #5 October 24, 2023, 5:30 – 7:30 PM Town of Cornwall Town Hall 183 Main Street, Cornwall, New York 12518 This meeting will be livestreamed. (Visit the Village/Town websites for the link)
Join the fifth, and last, LPC meeting for Cornwall’s New York Forward. LPC members will determine the final slate of projects to be included in the Strategic Investment Plan. Please note that LPC meetings are public working meetings for committee members, and time will be held at the end of the meetings for public comment.
PROPOSED PROJECT SURVEY Scan the QR code to access the survey or go to CornwallNYF.com and share your feedback on the slate of NY Forward projects. The survey will remain open until Thursday, October 19.
For Immediate Release May 19, 2022
Subject: Proposed 3-Year Contract Between Cornwall and the New Windsor Volunteer Ambulance Corps (NWVAC) for Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support Services
As most residents understand, individual municipalities are responsible for providing and maintaining an effective and sustainable ambulatory service to their communities. Of recent, it has become more difficult to provide this critical volunteer service due to soaring costs and the dwindling number of available volunteers. This issue has been a topic of debate within the New York State legislature recently, with legislation introduced to establish EMS (the provision of urgent pre-hospital treatment and transport for medical care) as an “essential service.” Long overdue, this effort could potentially reconfigure how ambulatory services are administered across New York State. Unless and until the County and/or State elect to make certain changes, municipalities must seek effective methods to sustain and improve services. Experts contend that the paradigm is evolving and that mergers, or consolidation, exist as an intermediate solution.
For over a year, New Windsor Volunteer Ambulance Corps (NWVAC) has contracted with the Town and Village to provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) services to Cornwall residents for a fee, while Cornwall Volunteer Ambulance Corps (COVAC) provides Basic Life Support (BLS) coverage for a fee, as well. ALS includes the highest level of emergency medicine – paramedic-level treatment – and NWVAC (or another EMS provider with ALS capabilities) has long answered calls within Cornwall for mutual aid, bereft of a contract. COVAC, staffed with Emergency Medical Technicians, or EMTs, has remained a fixture in our community since 1955.
A number of years ago, COVAC made the request to bill patients directly and a decision was subsequently reached to dissolve the “ambulance district” overseen by the Town. By billing insurance providers directly, this was to be a more efficient process that allowed for the Corps to remain solvent without monies allocated from Cornwall. The global pandemic and an attendant paucity of available volunteers has made staffing across the past several years a concern. This, coupled with significant debt accrual resulted in COVAC’s appeal for subsistence from the taxpayers – which the Town and Village jointly agreed to support.
Despite the provided financial support, there continue to exist a number of issues that have not been resolved, as relates to the professional administration of ambulatory services to our residents. Public safety is of paramount concern. Both the Town Supervisor and Village Mayor have met privately with COVAC leadership and members of COVAC’s elected board and operational membership appeared before a joint boards’ special meeting on January 11, 2022.
While COVAC maintains they have mitigated their insolvency issues and improved their first-call response rates, it is the consensus of both boards that NWVAC – widely regarded as the “gold standard” for local ambulatory care – will be contracted to cover both BLS and ALS responsibilities for Cornwall residents. This assumption of responsibilities can be considered a consolidation. Current COVAC members who wish to continue to serve Cornwall residents may interview with NWVAC, and be afforded opportunity to operate out of 1 Clinton Street location, be attired in Cornwall EMS uniforms, and respond to Cornwall service calls in a Cornwall-branded ambulance. This serves both professionalization and training standardization efforts.
On balance, we believe that this decision for establishment of a contemporary public/private partnership model -- created and supported by multiple municipalities, including Town of New Windsor, Town of Cornwall and Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson -- will ensure our residents receive the high-quality emergency medical care they deserve. NWVAC enables Cornwall leadership to remain confident in the model’s financial viability and sustainability, administrative transparency, leader oversight, and accountability while serving as an example for the region.
This was not an easy decision. Careful consideration was given to all impacted equities. Town and Village elected officials reflected deeply on the many decades of selfless service that COVAC and its volunteers have provided to our community; indeed, it is an honored local institution. But the primary responsibility of public officials is ensuring their constituents are afforded best available services for their hard-earned tax dollars. In our estimation, the proposed three-year contract with NWVAC ensures this. Know that we have explored innumerable options to guarantee confidence in the provision of EMS. And we have reviewed a number of similar municipal consolidated-services agreements. This is the best path forward for Cornwall.
On Thursday, May 26, 2022, at 7:00 p.m., inside the Edward C. Moulton, Jr. Village Board Room, located at Village Hall, 325 Hudson Street, Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York 12520, the Town and Village boards will convene a joint special meeting to address this matter publicly. Meeting will be publicly-noticed and contract provisions will be disclosed. The public will be afforded an opportunity to speak and boards will address some factors that led to this decision.
On behalf of the Town and Village Boards,
Joshua Thomas Wojehowski Supervisor
James A. Gagliano Mayor
Join the second LPC meeting for Cornwall’s New York Forward. LPC members will receive an update regarding public engagement, finalize the Cornwall NYF vision, review the preliminary list of opportunities and challenges, provide input on draft goals and discuss the project evaluation criteria and format for project selection. Please note that LPC meetings are public working meetings for committee members, and time will be held at the end of the meetings for public comment. There will be public workshops throughout this process during which the general public can provide their input.
Questions? Email CornwallNYF@vhb.com or visit our website www.cornwallnyf.com for more information.
Head to the Cornwall NYF website to provide your input regarding opportunities and challenges in Cornwall's downtown districts and shape the community's vision and goals to help move Cornwall forward.
All materials from Public Workshop #1 are posted on the website and a survey has been made available to obtain your feedback
The survey has been extended and will be open until Friday, July 14.
Scan the QR code or visit www.cornwallnyf.com
Wednesday, June 28, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm
June 28, 2023, 5:30-7:30 pm
Village Hall of Cornwall-on-Hudson
325 Hudson Street, Cornwall-On-Hudson, NY 12520
This meeting will be livestreamed
Calls for Projects Reminder & Business Survey Reminder
Open Call for Projects ends on July 21, 2023.
Virtual Office Hours will be held on Thursday July 13 11-1pm
Survey is open to responses until July 21, 2023 at www.cornwallnyf.com
April 20, 2020 Business Meeting
Due to public health and safety concerns related to COVID-19, the Village Board will NOT be meeting in person. In accordance with the Governor’s Executive Order 202.1, the meeting will be held via videoconferencing and a telephone conference call. A transcript will be available at a later date. The public will have the opportunity to hear the meeting live and provide comments. At 7 p.m., the public can watch the live meeting online via the GotoMeeting App.
If you have a computer, tablet or smartphone you can register, log in and see the video and hear the audio of the live meeting. You can access the GotoMeeting at https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/421978749 and click “Join Meeting”, and enter ID: 421-978-749. You can also listen by dialing +1 (571) 317-3112 and entering access code 421-978-749. Comments can also be provided via e-mail before and after the meeting to the Mayor, Brendan Coyne, at mayor@cornwall-on-hudson.org, and Village Clerk, Jeanne Mahoney, at clerk@cornwall-on-hudson.org . The Village Board will also accept written comments up to and until May 1, 2020; they can be e-mailed to the above addresses as well.