Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, asks a question of Noel Guttman, county emergency services director, during a recent presentation.

Chautauqua County EMS officials are in the midst of creating a state-required countywide EMS plan – and they’re quick to point out the county is not going to be taking over EMS services.

In December, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed S.7501A/A.8086 into law. State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, was a co-sponsor of the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously. The legislation requires an emergency medical services local planning process to provide for counties, cities, towns, and villages to develop a comprehensive plan to provide for coordinated emergency medical services within their counties. Counties were given six months to complete their plans, with about four months remaining.

Tim Carlson, county EMS chief paramedic, said the study will likely heavily reference a 2023 white paper on EMS sustainability that was presented by the state EMS Council in 2023.

‘We are all very happy to do this, but we’ve been very forthright with talking to our fire departments, and we wanted to dispel a couple of rumors, of course, that came right off that this was a plan for Chautauqua County to take over all EMS,” said Noel Guttman, county emergency services director. “Absolutely not. This is a plan for us to work with all those departments, all those municipalities, all those fire departments to document how they’re doing their job, how the county could help, and how the other departments can help each other. There will be a blueprint for what we hope we can evolve into and where we started and where we’d like to go. I reiterate this every time I talk about it – this is not a plan for us to take over in any way, shape, or form. That is not our desire at all.”

The legislation states countywide plans will include an assessment of the existing level of emergency medical services in each area of the county, a plan to increase or provide service where additional service is needed, a determination as to what organizational structure will be utilized to provide EMS and cost estimates to provide service in areas requiring service levels greater than currently available. Plans can use municipal, intermunicipal, not-for-profit or for-profit contract coverage, special district, or regional agreements for providing service in each area of the county.

The county currently operates four fly cars, with a fifth scheduled to be added to the Clymer area sometime in April. The county also operates a staffed BLS-level ambulance during the day in the Ashville area and has a second ALS ambulance in the Mayville area that makes interfacility transports during the way. There is also an as-needed ambulance staffed by volunteers in the northern end of the county. There are also 14 volunteer fire departments that operate as part of the county EMS system on a volunteer basis.

“I think the document, once we get that produced, I’m looking forward to the finished document,” Guttman said. “I think it’ll help be a blueprint for us as a county agency and as a county as a whole. And you know, I know Tim (Carlson) takes incredible pride, myself and all the medics, take great pride in the agency we built with CCEMS. It really has become a model for about 26 other counties across the state. We’re looking forward to trying to keep building this as the community needs.”