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The Village of Ossining Police Department is well equipped to handle anything the Town of Ossining needs. The officers of the Village PD are recognized by almost everyone in the Ossining School District area and have conducted nearly all of the Police work in the school system...ie....Dare etc. They are very well respected by all! As far as being able to cover the Town with the addition of a few officers it would be much quicker for additional officers and equipment to respond from the Village than waiting for extra officers to come from all parts of the county. Have no fear the officers who were Town who went with the County can find plenty of work with the County at the airport at least to save some overtime for the County. This plan is a HOME RUN!

Just chiming in here...you are correct on the timing of a drill.....do it at 10 am...or 3 am and see what you get. No notice no clues...do it in a part of Westchester that is notoriously UNDERSTAFFED during those hours and see what you get...i say chaos which in the case of an MCI with so many buffs and not enuffs..... I don't have a solution but it scares me everyday to think what would happen. Perhaps a central county EMS with 2 or three busses and a supervisor ready to respond and take charge of a scene no matter the juristiction! Lets face it from WMC to any part of the county you really are no more than 10 to 15 minutes away from anywhere. God forbid a commercial aircraft MCI near HPN....from WMC its a 8 to 10 minute response....from Yonkers its 15....Empress could handle first MCI response to south county....I guess WEMS could handle north county but a central county should come out of WMC.

As much as I like friendly's for some things...THEIR SERVICE KILLED THEM! THE SLOWEST SERVERS IN THE INDUSTRY...JUST LIKE HOWARD JOHNSONS USED TO BE......

As much as I like friendly's for some things...THEIR SERVICE KILLED THEM! THE SLOWEST SERVERS IN THE INDUSTRY...JUST LIKE HOWARD JOHNSONS USED TO BE......

As much as I like friendly's for some things...THEIR SERVICE KILLED THEM! THE SLOWEST SERVERS IN THE INDUSTRY...JUST LIKE HOWARD JOHNSONS USED TO BE......

As much as I like friendly's for some things...THEIR SERVICE KILLED THEM! THE SLOWEST SERVERS IN THE INDUSTRY...JUST LIKE HOWARD JOHNSONS USED TO BE......

As much as I like friendly's for some things...THEIR SERVICE KILLED THEM! THE SLOWEST SERVERS IN THE INDUSTRY...JUST LIKE HOWARD JOHNSONS USED TO BE......

As much as I like friendly's for some things...THEIR SERVICE KILLED THEM! THE SLOWEST SERVERS IN THE INDUSTRY...JUST LIKE HOWARD JOHNSONS USED TO BE......

I had the privilege of riding with Charlie and his good friend Chuck Rockefeller 25 years ago. Both men were the greatest example of the term "volunteer". They both had retired from very good careers and chose to give back to the community every Monday from 6am to 6pm. It was an amazing experience to watch these two men, the compassion and caring they had for whomever we were called to aid. Charlie "O" of course was also a mainstay with Croton EMS as well. On other days of the week he would be on almost every EMS call in Croton especially during the day. He had a great sense of humor and was always quick with a smile. Everybody loved Charlie. Now he has gone to help our friend Joe Prefontaine up in heaven. I'm sure they are taking care of all the bumps and bruises up there. RIP Charlie and Joe.....

I had the privilege of riding with Charlie and his good friend Chuck Rockefeller 25 years ago. Both men were the greatest example of the term "volunteer". They both had retired from very good careers and chose to give back to the community every Monday from 6am to 6pm. It was an amazing experience to watch these two men, the compassion and caring they had for whomever we were called to aid. Charlie "O" of course was also a mainstay with Croton EMS as well. On other days of the week he would be on almost every EMS call in Croton especially during the day. He had a great sense of humor and was always quick with a smile. Everybody loved Charlie. Now he has gone to help our friend Joe Prefontaine up in heaven. I'm sure they are taking care of all the bumps and bruises up there. RIP Charlie and Joe.....

I had the privilege of riding with Charlie and his good friend Chuck Rockefeller 25 years ago. Both men were the greatest example of the term "volunteer". They both had retired from very good careers and chose to give back to the community every Monday from 6am to 6pm. It was an amazing experience to watch these two men, the compassion and caring they had for whomever we were called to aid. Charlie "O" of course was also a mainstay with Croton EMS as well. On other days of the week he would be on almost every EMS call in Croton especially during the day. He had a great sense of humor and was always quick with a smile. Everybody loved Charlie. Now he has gone to help our friend Joe Prefontaine up in heaven. I'm sure they are taking care of all the bumps and bruises up there. RIP Charlie and Joe.....

I had the privilege of riding with Charlie and his good friend Chuck Rockefeller 25 years ago. Both men were the greatest example of the term "volunteer". They both had retired from very good careers and chose to give back to the community every Monday from 6am to 6pm. It was an amazing experience to watch these two men, the compassion and caring they had for whomever we were called to aid. Charlie "O" of course was also a mainstay with Croton EMS as well. On other days of the week he would be on almost every EMS call in Croton especially during the day. He had a great sense of humor and was always quick with a smile. Everybody loved Charlie. Now he has gone to help our friend Joe Prefontaine up in heaven. I'm sure they are taking care of all the bumps and bruises up there. RIP Charlie and Joe.....

I had the privilege of riding with Charlie and his good friend Chuck Rockefeller 25 years ago. Both men were the greatest example of the term "volunteer". They both had retired from very good careers and chose to give back to the community every Monday from 6am to 6pm. It was an amazing experience to watch these two men, the compassion and caring they had for whomever we were called to aid. Charlie "O" of course was also a mainstay with Croton EMS as well. On other days of the week he would be on almost every EMS call in Croton especially during the day. He had a great sense of humor and was always quick with a smile. Everybody loved Charlie. Now he has gone to help our friend Joe Prefontaine up in heaven. I'm sure they are taking care of all the bumps and bruises up there. RIP Charlie and Joe.....

From a non medical standpoint that location is 15 to 20 minutes from the Medical Center at most..maybe a little less if a police escort helps out at the lights in Ossining and Briarcliff which is not as difficult as it sounds. Because there was "no extrication" required from the time patient contact was made to delivery at the Med Center it should have required no more than 30 minutes total. No question ground could have gotten the patient there much quicker than waiting for a bird. The medics could have "worked" the patient enroute to save time. The roadway is level and smooth for the most part with only one curve to negotiate. I've driven that route many times in the past with TRAUMA patients being worked and never had a problem getting them there without incident and safely.

From a non medical standpoint that location is 15 to 20 minutes from the Medical Center at most..maybe a little less if a police escort helps out at the lights in Ossining and Briarcliff which is not as difficult as it sounds. Because there was "no extrication" required from the time patient contact was made to delivery at the Med Center it should have required no more than 30 minutes total. No question ground could have gotten the patient there much quicker than waiting for a bird. The medics could have "worked" the patient enroute to save time. The roadway is level and smooth for the most part with only one curve to negotiate. I've driven that route many times in the past with TRAUMA patients being worked and never had a problem getting them there without incident and safely.

Just came back from a drive around Ossining. I can't believe the number of hydrants that are buried in snow. I think that property owners who don't clear them within 48 hours after a snow should be fined! This is serious stuff! Many of our illegal housing houses are nearby and we are only a spark away from a calamity.

As a former MTA bus driver...no doubt the driver was not at fault. Once those things start skidding on a hill only God knows where it will end up. Poor job clearing the hill especially that one with all the slush at the bottom it was an accident waiting to happen. Hope the driver was not hurt. Keep the "wheels on the bus go round and round...round and round.....oops....skid skid skid...all day long"

I've got to chime (not tone) in here. Do these workers actually respond ON EVERY CALL? I doubt it..they do have pagers etc and more than likely portable radios either in their vehicles or on their person. They are not going to respond to "nuisance alarms" unless the first arriving units assertain that the alarm is indeed a "worker" either fire, accident or other emergency that requires more manpower than the initail responders can handle. Of course if a call comes in that an actual emergency exists on dispatch then by all means they should respond in a life and death situation. For the most part if one or two DPW (or other village or town workers) respond on a REAL EMERGENCY I doubt any non responding worker would feel "cheated" because he had to continue working. Most municipal workers live in the area and should be glad these people can respond.

How in the HELL can the people of Mt. Vernon allow the Fire Department to operate like this? It is unbelievable that they are so short staffed! Heck we get 40 or more volunteers out the door on every call......shameful.....

How in the HELL can the people of Mt. Vernon allow the Fire Department to operate like this? It is unbelievable that they are so short staffed! Heck we get 40 or more volunteers out the door on every call......shameful.....

Just another reason why we the residents of Ossining are blessed with such a great fire and ems departments. Well trained and very responsive at any hour.

Just another reason why we the residents of Ossining are blessed with such a great fire and ems departments. Well trained and very responsive at any hour.

As I see it trying to run an EMS agency with all volunteers in Westchester County is out of the question! Twenty years ago when people could afford to live here and work only one job to make ends meet VACS were full of members who rode schedules weekly. In fact when a "new member" joined it was almost impossible for that member to "ride" weeknights because 5 man crews had been working together for years! Recently, it has been nearly impossible to get new members because the "younger potential" members were moving out of Westchester because of these taxes. In many communities the "call volume" has gotten to the point that volunteers have to stay in quarters for the entire shift..when I rode it was possible to respond from home of somewhere in the community within 4 minutes which freed the volunteer to do some limited errands etc. I believe the "response" is now mandatory within a very short period of time.
We are teetering on a very short leash here in Westchester when it comes to EMS and Fire Dept. response. More and more only one ambulance often with only two people is available to respond no matter what the nature of the call. I dare say that should the call be traumatic that the survival rate is significantly less than it was years ago just from a response time angle. Many of you have raised the question of going to PAID staff. It is a great idea BUT WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GET ENOUGH MEDICS AND EMT'S FROM? Most per diems are not making enough per hour and thus are running from one agency to another for shifts. We are losing contol of our emergency responders due to lack of manpower. Time for the politicians to recognize this and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ..before it is too late.

Thankfully, I live in Ossining and for the most part we are well protected in both EMS and FD. Yes, most of the EMS calls are covered by paid EMT"S and Medics but there are still some volunteers riding the night shifts to keep costs down. With two crews on most of the time we can cover our calls and with the additional resource of the Tri-Town flycar we are in good shape in Ossining, Croton and Briarcliff Manor with regard to EMS. This has been a festering problem for many years in Westchester. Call volumes have increased at an unbelievable rate. It was not uncommon just 10 years ago for an entire 12 hour shift that no calls came in to OVAC..now its more likely to have 12 calls in 12 hours with many double headers. Funding has been tough some tax districts have been created but I think that instead of creating a seperate tax for EMS it should be included in either school or property tax lines to perhaps lighten the load. A point made about many EMS professionals doing dual duty to make ends meet is valid. These lifesavers need to be paid a living wage. In many cases they are not. The County gets involved in amusement parks, useless beaches on the Hudson river and other areas that are FAR LESS IMPORTANT than EMS.

The info I got was that it was a prolonged extrication .. 2 hours.. He was pinned in there pretty good. Medevac was requested due to the time for extrication but was down for weather. From the info I got a trauma surgical team was requested from WMC in case the victim took a turn for the worse and they had to RAPIDLY EXTRICATE HIM which may have resulted in an amputation of a leg. OFD and A and P towing did an amazing job together to get the guy out. The performance of Westchester County PD was terrible. They set up detours that went around in a circle and led people back to the same place. They remained in their cars and watched the people circle with no direction what so ever. One would think that after the last incident they would have devised a plan to get traffic through to Route 9 north but no such luck. It took them until 6 at night to figure out that they should close 9A North in Briarcliff with direction to RT 100 to the Taconic North. Once again OFD and OVAC worked as a team with good results.