To the editor:

Are we trying to eat the entire elephant in one bite? After years of not listening to our fire department, we now need a firehouse. Great, let’s take that bite. If we had listened to the firemen, it wouldn’t be an emergency right now. We would have planned for it decades ago. Our Saranac Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad (SLVRS), has contracts with surrounding communities and the hospital to help fund their service. SLVRS is a private 501(c)(3) not-for-profit ambulance service. Are the surrounding communities going to help fund the combined Emergency Services Building they are proposing? They currently fund the 501(c)(3) as does our village. So I have to ask, as someone who helped start a 501(c)(3) ambulance service in 1999 (as CEO of Warrensburgh Emergency Medical Services, 1999-2004) that is still operating as such, but now is funded by an EMS tax district since 2022: Why are we proposing to build a building for a private 501(c)(3) corporation?

Let’s solve the immediate problem for the fire company and let the private 501(c)(3) ambulance service propose an EMS district instead of the contracts they have, if they need additional funding. Both the fire company and the ambulance service are needed entities. The fire department is the village’s responsibility. I am not sure I understand why the village is responsible for a private 501(c)(3)? We can eat the elephant one bite at a time. So we don’t choke.

William N. Martin

Saranac Lake