Syracuse, N.Y. -- As Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh fights for tax dollars to keep his department’s helicopter flying, a private medical helicopter service that competes with the sheriff’s copter is showing off its newest hardware.
Mercy Flight Central, a medevac service based in Canandaigua, has scheduled a press conference for this morning to display what it says is a newer, better helicopter that it will use in Central New York and base at Marcellus Airport in Onondaga County.
A Eurocopter EC135 will replace the Eurocopter BO105 that Mercy currently uses in Central New York to transport patients to hospitals from accident scenes. Mercy said the twin-engine EC135 is bigger than the helicopter it is replacing and offers increased speed and range.
The press conference is being held just a day before the Onondaga County Legislature votes on the county’s 2012 budget. County Executive Joanie Mahoney and the Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee have recommended budgets that contain no funding to pay the salaries of the four pilots who fly Air-1, the sheriff’s helicopter.
Walsh has been lobbying lawmakers to put about $400,000 into the budget to pay for the pilots. He said he hopes to raise the other $200,000 needed to operate Air-1 through service fees and fund-raising.
Walsh says the helicopter saves lives by quickly transporting accident victims and also performs valuable law enforcement tasks and search and rescue operations — tasks that Mercy cannot perform. Critics in the Legislature say Air-1 is a luxury the county can no longer afford and that the state police and Mercy Flight can provide medical transports at no cost to county taxpayers.
Neil Snedeker, president and chief operating officer of Mercy Flight, said the timing of the press conference has nothing to do with the Legislature’s vote tomorrow. The EC135 will be flying out of Marcellus in a few weeks and the company wants to show it off to the media while the weather is still good, he said.
In its notice to the media, Mercy emphasized that it is a private service not currently receiving government funding. (Snedeker said Mercy used to receive about $100,000 a year from the state, but that the grants stopped last year.)
“As governments are struggling to provide cost-effective services to the taxpayers in the poor economy, MFC is increasing its air medical commitment and support to the patients and EMS providers of Central New York as the only air medical service that has onsite staffed crews 24x7, provides critical care level medicine for its patients and does not rely on government funding,” the Mercy announcement said.
Mercy is a non-profit corporation. It owns the EC135, but it leases its other three helicopters and two planes from EMS Air Services, a for-profit company owned by Mercy’s chief executive officer, Paul Hyland.
Air-1’s supporters in the Legislature are expected to try to amend the proposed 2012 to include money for its pilots. Legislator William Meyer, R-Cicero, said he will support providing funding for the helicopter.
Legislature Chairman James Rhinehart, R-Skaneateles, said he will oppose any attempt to provide more tax dollars for Air-1.
“It’s overkill,” he said. “We’ve got all kinds of helicopter service in Central New York.”
The sheriff’s office has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for a commercial operator’s license, which would allow it to charge for transports. Currently, it provides medical transports for free, both in Onondaga County and — to the chagrin of some legislators — in surrounding counties.
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