The Town of Lloyd recently contracted their ambulance service with the New Paltz Rescue Squad that will start on January 1, 2024 at an annual cost of $600,000.

CEO Matthew Goodnow said they will be proving the town with 24/7 service – a paramedic, an ALS ambulance with paramedic EMT and will be stationed in Highland, “and they will have access to a 12 hour Basic Life Support ambulance that will be stationed in New Paltz. It will create better service for both towns because both will have access to units in an emergency situation.” He acknowledged that the annual amount is up from Lloyd’s previous company, “but it’s the cost of doing business.”

Goodnow said he has expanded staffing, “and once we go live on January 1 we’ll have a total of three ALS ambulances in service 24/7 and a BLS ambulance in service from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The first ALS 24/7 ambulance is specific to the Town of Lloyd and the other two, Lloyd will have access to when necessary but one of which will also be dedicated to New Paltz.”

Goodnow said his company will be held to a 9:59 minute response time.

“With our location being where we are and the way we split the district between the two fire districts, station 1 and station 2 response areas, we will far exceed the response time requirements,” he said. “We have no concerns with the response time algorithm.”

Goodnow said his company brings, “50 years of experience in providing the highest quality emergency medical care and our reputation is obviously quite well. Lloyd was looking for a change and we were available to help.”

Goodnow said the company was founded in New Paltz by a Board of Directors; “a group of local citizens who realized that the local doctor wasn’t doing house calls anymore and saw there was a need so they got together and founded the ambulance company. They got a Cadillac and it expanded from there; from one ambulance and a group of volunteers to a fully professional ambulance service with multiple ambulances and state of the art equipment and highly trained providers.”

Goodnow has been in the agency as a paramedic for 10 years and has been the Chief for nearly 7 years.

“I look forward to being able to give the Town of Lloyd residents the service that we’ve been giving New Paltz, and covering calls that are going unanswered,” he said. “Our biggest thing is that we’re not the patients, so this is not a financial situation for us, this is helping the patients the best we can.”