NEW BERLIN – Approximately 80 residents of the towns of New Berlin and Columbus – joined by a number of county emergency officials and other local leaders – attended a special public hearing concerning the Town of New Berlin’s application for a permanent Certificate of Need (CON), held Monday evening in the Unadilla Valley Central School cafeteria.

According to CON committee member Sally Gillispie, who directed last night’s hearing, the committee will determine whether or not the town requires its own ambulance service, in this case the Unadilla Valley Ambulance Corporation (UVAC). They’ll also decide if there is an absence of service that would necessitate such a determination; and if there has been a reduction in the availability of that service or an inadequate level of care. The town currently has a temporary, two-year CON agreement with the New York State Department of Health and Susquehanna Region Emergency Management Services (SREMS), a state-empowered committee that oversees Chenango, Broome and Tioga counties. The CON committee will release its decision on Feb. 28.

More than 25 of those attending the meeting voiced their opinion on the controversial topic, with the majority of those speaking against the CON agreement. According to the opposition, there’s simply no need for another ambulance service in the area, which was once covered by Cooperstown Medical Transport, the South New Berlin fire district and the Village of New Berlin Ambulance Service (NBAS). In 2012, the town contracted with UVAC, despite a Jan. 24, 2012 vote that saw residents of the towns of New Berlin and Columbus voicing their disapproval of the creation of another ambulance district by a five to one margin, 424 to 73.

Town of New Berlin Supervisor Ross Iannello, in the town’s opening statement, noted that the contentious issue has been ongoing since 2004, when the town lost all ambulance service. Between 2004 and 2008, he added, the town saw “myriad services” come and go, and while the towns of New Berlin and Columbus attempted to include the Village of New Berlin as it moved forward with its plan to form UVAC, that partnership “didn’t work out.”

Iannello went on to state that – in 2011 – the political season hit, and he believed the process became a “political football.”

“I would just like to say that everything in our application details what we went through to get to this point,” added Iannello. “We would like the committee to look at our application favorably.”

According to the New Berlin Town Board and UVAC, Cooperstown Medical Transport remains the only county-wide provider of ambulance services and the town has determined it is better off serving its own needs. The matter is far from simple, however, as UVAC’s detractors said it will be the taxpayers who will pay the price, many adding their belief that the goal all along has been putting the Village of New Berlin Ambulance Service out of business.

Seth Johnson, with NBAS and its Advanced Life Support supervisor since 2005, objected to last night’s proceeding and called the town’s CON application “incomplete” and submitted “in an untimely manner,” adding that the entire process was “intentionally done under a cloak of darkness.”

Any existing service, said Johnson, should be considered first and foremost.

“As my grandfather would say, call a spade a spade,” he added.