Town Board talks block grants, AEDs and tax cap

NORTH EAST — The Town Board held an abbreviated meeting on Thursday, July 9, at Town Hall. The meeting’s brevity was due to the fact that Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky couldn’t attend; a special meeting with Replansky is set for Thursday, July 23, at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. 

According to town Supervisor John Merwin, only a few actions were merited that night.

Block grants

Last month the board voted to endorse the town’s participation in the Community Development Block Grant Urban County Consortium. It did not pass a formal resolution at the time because the county had a technical issue with the contract. That contract was ready last week; the board readily signed it.

“So we are participating for the next funding cycle,” confirmed Merwin.

The county-wide block grant consortium requires a three-year commitment from participating municipalities and bars participation with the state block grant program.

AEDs

The other issue addressed by the Town Board last week related to installing an automated external defibrillator (AED) at the Town Hall. There’s a program through the Department of Health (DOH) that provides public access to defibrillators, which can then be accessed through a lock box on a wall.

“You pull it out and an alarm goes off and anybody could use one,” said Merwin, who supports the idea of bringing an emergency defibrillator to Town Hall. 

Through the Department of Health an AED can be provided under the Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) program, designed to encourage “greater acquisition, deployment and use of automatic external defibrillators in communities around the state in an effort to reduce the numbers of death associated with sudden cardiac arrest,” stated literature from the DOH. “Since the enabling legislation’s inception, there have been 4,889 PAD programs established, with over 156,167 people trained and 21,692 AED machines in public sites across the state.”

To participate in the PAD program, a New York state licensed physician or someone knowledgeable and experienced in emergency cardiac care must serve as an Emergency Health Care Provider. The AED must be programmed to the current Emergency Cardiovascular Care Guidelines for adult and pediatric patients. And an approved PAD training course must be taken by those on site. Written protocols must be approved, written notice of the AED’s availability at any given site must be shared with 911 and a Notice of Intent to provide PAD must be filed along with a signed Collaborative Agreement with the appropriate Regional Emergency Medical Services Council (which must be updated if any changes are made).

According to Merwin, Phillips Electronics, one of the largest producers of AEDs, is under a state purchasing contract to provide the AEDs for a set annual fee. The board discussed a fee of $1,200 for the AED and all of the material and equipment that goes along with it, he said. 

Merwin himself has been a trained CPR instructor for years and believes that training would help the Town Hall qualify for the AED under the PAD requirements.

Tax cap

The meeting on July 23, meanwhile, will likely address the issue of the state-mandated tax cap. As a precautionary measure the Town Board plans to adopt a public law to allow it to exceed the cap. 

“If we don’t have that law we can’t; if we pass the law and don’t exceed the cap we have to repeal the law, but that’s fine,” said Merwin. “The tax cap is below 1 percent. That’s the thing that all smaller municipalities, counties and school districts are frustrated with the state for; the state isn’t being held accountable. It’s the elephant in the living room that everybody knows the source of the problem but  they don’t want to address it.”