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By IAN CAMPBELL Times Leader Correspondent
 Tuesday, November 22, 2005 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 10A 





Supervisor Tony Attardo moved Monday to allocate $30,000 in the 2006
township budget for paying all township residents' ambulance membership fees,
despite suggestions in a pre-election letter from the president of the
Pittston Township Ambulance Association the offer was unwelcome. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Attardo said at the supervisors' meeting before the unanimous vote that
he'd thought about the matter earlier in the year, upon learning only about
half the households in the township ever paid the $25 annual ambulance charge. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; With the additional revenue from the recently introduced EMS tax reducing
the need for the township to fund as much police, fire and road work from its
own funds, and with new tax streams coming from planned developments in the
municipality, he looked at ways the board could spend money to help the
residents. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In addition to lowering garbage fees, reducing income tax rates, adding
more full-time police officers and carrying out more paving and sewer
projects, he also looked at covering the full levy of the ambulance fees, thus
giving the ambulance association twice as much revenue and taking the load off
residents who are more likely to be living on fixed incomes, he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 A pre-election letter to the Sunday Dispatch from Ambulance Association
President Mark Simko Sr. suggested Attardo's motives were open to question,
and the move would end up damaging the Ambulance Association. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The letter said Attardo had threatened to reduce ambulance funding over
service questions. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Attardo and a number of residents in a meeting midsummer had questioned the
way the ambulance provided service during weekday evenings, but at no point
had Attardo suggested funding should be reduced, according to records of the
meeting. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Board members Joseph Adams and John Paglianite suggested the association
should be grateful for Attardo's effort rather than criticizing him for it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The $30,000 that will appear in the budget represents a $15,000 increase
over the levy amount raised last year, Attardo said, and does not impact the
association's ability to carry out any other fund-raising activity. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The budget should be finalized by Friday, and available at the township
offices, with a public hearing to take place at the December meeting, said
board secretary James Thomas. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Ambulance Fees To Be Paid In '06