Village, ambulance corps near accord

In the words of Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

The Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Village Board of Trustees are at the very, very beginning. They met last week to continue working out the details of a new contract and lease, and this time they actually made some headway. The two parties have been trying since August to sign a new contract and finalize a lease agreement that will allow the Corps to make its long-awaited move into a headquarters.

Hitting several bumps along the road, including a short-lived standstill last month, members of both groups were nearing their wit’s end. But Corps President Joe Karam quickly arranged a meeting, which ended up being a meeting of minds. “We gave in a little bit and the village gave in a little bit, and it just worked out,” Karam told the Herald. “The negotiation worked out very well this time.”

Trustee Patricia Canzoneri-Callahan said that at the meeting Karam and Corps Board Chairman John Hassett expressed their concern about some of the language in the document, but it was agreed that they simply did not understand that that particularly language is standard in most leases. They also voiced “their fears about us trying to kick them out,” Canzoneri-Callahan told the Herald.

“I guess in a nutshell there’s a lot of distrust,” she added. “I don’t really know why they are so distrusting of the village; The village built a building for them and didn’t even have anything up front from them about their commitment, and, if anything, that showed a lot of good faith on the part of the village board that we intended to continue to contract with them and have them provide a service for us.”

It appears as though Corps leadership left the Feb. 2 meeting with a better understanding of the board’s intentions. “The ambulance corps is very impressed … with what the village did for us,” Karam said. “We’re moving along very well.”

Trustees also expressed relief following the peaceful negotiations. “We walked away feeling that they understood what we needed and that we’re moving toward a common goal,” Canzoneri-Callahan said. “I feel much better after meeting with them that we are actually moving forward, working this out.”

Trustees were expected to meet with Karam and Hassett again on Thursday to present them with a revised contract and lease. It is everyone’s hope that the Corps will move into its new building, adjacent to the Malverne Department of Public Works, by next month.