Taking a Ride in the Pelham Fly Car

[x635 4,066]

Great article.

Perhaps you’ve seen it waiting at the ready at the train station in the morning, or at Glover Field during an athletic event in the afternoon. Maybe, it grabbed your eye whizzing down Fifth Avenue, lights and sirens piercing the air. Or perhaps, at the end of a quick journey across Pelham, the folks operating the Empress Ambulance Fly Car have helped save you or your loved one’s life.

But what is the fly car exactly? I wanted to find out so I recently spent a day riding around with paramedic Richard Ulrich, one of the operators of the emergency service vehicle that serves the Town of Pelham 24/7 in lieu of an

http://www.pelhamplus.com/top_news/article_ccd735ec-fefe-11e4-a8af-4f489bd7d386.html

[STAT213 332]

Yup. Well done.

I bout spit out my coffee at one part though. THREE radios? He has to carry THREE radios? And calls come from any one of those? WHAT. THE. F$&*??!!

Is this 1980? I live up in cow Hampshire. Bout as rural as you can get. My state issued radio can talk to EVERY dispatch center. All of em. All of our 911 calls are answered in one of two places. Then dropped down to local dispatch centers who tone out crews. There's no WONDERING if I should go on a call. If the voice in the ceiling says go, I go.

You folks need to stop accepting your status quo. Step up and lead. Be that guy. How is it possibly better and more efficient to have to carry THREE radios? Do they do this in NEW YORK CITY? Anywhere?

Rant over. Carry on.

[ARI1220 12]

The fly car has an onboard 60 Control radio, Empress radio, and Pelhem PD radio.

60 Control dispatches 38M1, 38M1 then uses Empress radio or phone to tell them their going on a job.

Their is a portable trunked radio to talk to 60, and a portable radio to talk to Empress.

[STAT213 332]

You can explain to me until you are blue in the face what each radio is for and why it's there, doesn't mean I'll buy in.

This is a perfect example of just how flawed EMS in Westchester is. I've worked for privates, publics. ONE radio. Talk to one dispatch center once you sign on the air. None of this bouncing around, checking in with multiple people, wondering which radio I need to grab when I need help.

[ARI1220 12]

I don't disagree with you. I too work for both the privates and public. Do I think there should be one centralized radio system, absolutely. Do I think both my partner and I should be issued two portables like in NYC, absolutely.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Should we get a radio interoperability thread started? I see this escalating quickly.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Lets take it one step farther. The town of Pelham is 2.2 square miles. Approximately 1/2 is the village of Pelham and the other half is the village of Pelham Manor. They have an elected town supervisor and four Town Board members. plus Assistant to the Supervisor, Comptroller and ten departments: Town Clerk, Receiver of Taxes, Assessor, Courts, Town Engineer, Buildings, Senior Advocate, Historian, and Controller/Bookkeeper all in one town hall,

Then the villages have 2 of everything:

2 village managers

2 village clerks

2 village Police Departments

2 village Fire Departments

2 village Department of public works,

2 village Building Inspectors.

2 village attorneys

2 village Mayors and Boards

1 ALS flycar

AND is the only community in Westchester county with NO AMBULANCES.

[LTNRFD 266]

Lets take it one step farther. The town of Pelham is 2.2 square miles. Approximately 1/2 is the village of Pelham and the other half is the village of Pelham Manor. They have an elected town supervisor and four Town Board members. plus Assistant to the Supervisor, Comptroller and ten departments: Town Clerk, Receiver of Taxes, Assessor, Courts, Town Engineer, Buildings, Senior Advocate, Historian, and Controller/Bookkeeper all in one town hall,

Then the villages have 2 of everything:

2 village managers

2 village clerks

2 village Police Departments

2 village Fire Departments

2 village Department of public works,

2 village Building Inspectors.

2 village attorneys

2 village Mayors and Boards

1 ALS flycar

AND is the only community in Westchester county with NO AMBULANCES.

Barry the Town of Pelham is taking great strides to consolidate. Back in the late 70's the village of Pelham did absorb the Village of North Pelham's police department. Things can't happen overnight.

[kinkchaser 352]

North Korea and South Korea will consolidate before Pelham and Pelham Manor

[SageVigiles 1,194]

North Korea and South Korea will consolidate before Pelham and Pelham Manor

This guy wins.

[JAD622 40]

Barry the Town of Pelham is taking great strides to consolidate. Back in the late 70's the village of Pelham did absorb the Village of North Pelham's police department. Things can't happen overnight.

They are? That's news to me and I work there!

[61MACKBR1 222]

Another argument for a complete consolidation of all Emergency Services (Fire and EMS [and eventually Police]) into 1 "Consolidated and Unified" Westchester County Department of Emergency Services Operation (Thus, as I have posted countless times on EMTBRAVO.net, you would be able to ensure ample coverage, elliminate redundancy and waste, and get rid of all of the buracratic political red tape.

I just would take a few prominent individuals within both the County and the State of New York to have the "balls" to say enough with the HOME RULE, enough with Union Interference, and enough with Local Municipality Political Holdings and Egos.

[ARI1220 12]

Another argument for a complete consolidation of all Emergency Services (Fire and EMS [and eventually Police]) into 1 "Consolidated and Unified" Westchester County Department of Emergency Services Operation (Thus, as I have posted countless times on EMTBRAVO.net, you would be able to ensure ample coverage, elliminate redundancy and waste, and get rid of all of the buracratic political red tape.

I just would take a few prominent individuals within both the County and the State of New York to have the "balls" to say enough with the HOME RULE, enough with Union Interference, and enough with Local Municipality Political Holdings and Egos.

[ARI1220 12]

I was down in Broward County FL this past week and was dumbfounded between the differences in NY and FL. The Broward County Sheriff's Office provides not only law enforcement to the entire county, but also fire and EMS to the unincorporated parts of Broward County. Now I don't much about Fire/PD/EMS down in FL, but why can't NY have a similar system? Obviously there's laws, politics, unions etc.... everywhere, but what prevents NY from becoming unified?

[AFS1970 504]

The Broward County Sheriffs FD was a take over of an existing agency. I remember reading about it when it happened. Essentially they just put the Sheriff in charge of the fire department. I have no idea how good or bad this works.

[wedgeclose 59]

Truth is most of these Pelham/Pelham Manor...Ossining Town/Village...Rye/Rye Brook....Harrison/West Harrison...White Plains/North White Plains combos are all about "the good old boys club" Heaven forbid we don't have a town supervisor and town board then a Mayor and a village manager...our property values would go soooooo low if we were known as West Harrison or Town of Ossining instead of Briarcliff Manor or Tarrytown vs Sleepy Hollow! It is time to wake up people all this duplication of services costs MONEY and it comes from TAXES...combine them all and share services before there is no one left in Westchester that can afford to live here!