By Stephen T. Watson
The Buffalo News
TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Twin City Ambulance is demanding the Town of Tonawanda retract its statements that the company’s ambulances are regularly delayed up to an hour when responding to emergencies in the town.
The company sent a “cease-and-desist” letter to Tonawanda Supervisor Joseph Emminger on Friday, one day after officials held a news conference to announce the town intended to launch its own ambulance service.
Emminger said the town was driven to start the municipal service because its police officers and paramedics often were stuck unnecessarily at the scene of emergencies waiting for Twin City ambulances. “Sometimes they have to wait upwards of 30 to 60 minutes for the ambulance to arrive,” the supervisor said Thursday.
Instead, the town plans in 2025 to begin its own operation with four ambulances and 20 EMTs, with Emminger saying Tonawanda leaders expect the service to at the least break even financially.
However, Terry Clark, Twin City’s president, said the town’s announcement caught him by surprise and Tonawanda officials have never raised concerns about response times with him.
Twin City’s letter repeats data the company previously shared with The Buffalo News that show the average response time for the 10,600 calls the company handled in the town over the past 12 months was just over 10 minutes and no call took longer than 40 minutes at the scene.
The letter to Emminger asks that he “IMMEDIATELY cease and desist from the above-referenced conduct aimed at Twin City Ambulance and IMMEDIATELY issue an accurate & correct press release retracting the false and misleading statements.”
Town Attorney Michael Kooshoian didn’t immediately provide a response to Twin City’s demand. Emminger did not directly answer whether the town would retract the response time statements.
“We understand their position,” he said in a text message. “The emergency care that our residents require, when they need it the most, is/was the driving factor behind the town’s decision to move forward with our ambulance corp.”
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