Mercy Flight

Press release:

At approximately 1:00 p.m. the Mercy Flight Communications Center was notified that a Mercy Flight helicopter had sustained an accident in the area of Elba, NY in Genesee County during Mercy Flight’s annual Bell Helicopter factory training.

Mercy Flight Pilot James Sauer and a Bell Helicopter Flight Instructor perished in the accident. Mr. Sauer, a retired NYS Police Pilot, began working with Mercy Flight in October 2020.

“It goes without saying that our attention needs to be focused on the families of those lost and on our own employees as we deal with this unspeakable tragedy. This is a very dark day for the Mercy Flight family, we are so grateful for the expressions of love, concern and support expressed by many,” said Margaret Ferrentino, Mercy Flight’s President.

“Mercy Flight has temporarily suspended operations in order to allow time for our employees to process the event, and to ensure the complete safe mechanical operation of our other helicopters pending a preliminary accident team investigation. The Mercy Flight Communications Center will remain operational and will refer any requests to other area resources who are standing by to assist,” states Scott Wooton, Mercy Flight’s Executive Vice President.

The cause of the accident has not been determined. FAA, NTSB, Bell Helicopter and Underwriter Accident Investigation teams are responding to the scene. We will provide additional information as it becomes available. 

Previously: Edgerton Road resident heard a helicopter in trouble before Mercy Flight crash in Elba

Charlene Schultz is used to hearing helicopters over her house on Edgerton Road in Elba.  She seems to live in a flight path for both the military and Mercy Flight. So she knows what a helicopter passing overhead sounds like when all is all right.

Shortly before 1 p.m. today, she knew she heard a helicopter that was in trouble.

"The motor sounded weird," Schultz said. "You know when you start your car and it goes woo-woo? That's what it sounds like to me twice. Like it won't start. Then it went out completely. Then it came back on and I heard the Big Bang."

She speculated the pilot managed to get the motor started again as the helicopter was heading down but it was too late.

She went outside expecting to see smoke but there was no smoke.  She got in her car and drove to the scene.

"Three men stopped me and I was from here to your car (less than 50 yards) and saw what I didn't want to see. So I turned around and came back home."

Major Eugene Staniszewski, State Police, confirmed this afternoon that two crew members aboard the flight died in the crash. Their names have not yet been released.

The cause of the accident is under investigation. Investigators from both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been dispatched to the scene.

"We will be here for quite a while," Staniszewski said. "This could be into tomorrow while we're still on scene and then after that, it usually takes quite a while, it could be months until they come up with a final determination (as to the cause of the crash)."

The helicopter was on a training mission, Staniszewski confirmed, and it was flying out of the Mercy base at the Genesee County Airport. 

The major said there is at least one person who saw the helicopter go down and several who heard the helicopter in the area.

One neighbor said she saw a Mercy Flight helicopter circle the area before she and her husband went to Walmart.  They only learned of the crash while at the store and returned home immediately.  Schultz, however, said she believes the helicopter that circled the scene showed up after the crash.  She said when she first saw it, she hoped it was a sign that the crew survived but then the Mercy Flight helicopter left without landing.

"We are interviewing several witnesses and local neighbors that live on this road," Staniszewski said. "We'll be working with Mercy Flight and NTSB and FAA to come up with a reason for this crash."

UPDATE:  The pilot was James E. Sauer, 60 of Churchville. The second person was a Bell Helicopter employee and pilot, Stewart M. Dietrick, 60 of Prosper, Texas. They were flying a Bell 429 that was based in Batavia. They were pronounced dead at the scene and taken to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office.

An unidentified helicopter circled the scene an hour or so after the accident.

Power lines were cut because lines had fallen dangerously close to the helicopter, impeding the investigation.

File photo of a Mercy Flight helicopter taken April 24 at GCC following a serious injury accident at Clinton Street Road and Seven Springs Road. Photos by Howard Owens.

Press release:

Mercy has received reports of an individual going door-to-door in the Batavia, NY area soliciting monetary donations on behalf of the organization. Mercy Flight does not solicit donations door-to-door.

If you receive this type of solicitation from anyone claiming to represent Mercy Flight, please notify the City of Batavia Police Department at (585) 345-6350.

There were no injuries reported after a Mercy Flight helicopter a hard landing in heavy fog at the Genesee County Airport on Wednesday night.

The Bell 429 was returning from Strong Memorial Hospital, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The helicopter sustained damage to the underside of the fuselage after it landed on the north side of the airport, just north of the flightline, between State Street Road and Bank Street Road.

The crew members were transported to an area hospital for evaluation as a precaution.

The FAA  will investigate the incident along with Sgt. Andrew Hale, Deputy Kyle Krzemien and Deputy Morgan Ewert.

Town of Batavia Fire and Mercy EMS responded to the scene.

Information and photos via Alecia Kaus/Video  News Service.

Mercy Flight Inc.’s air and ground emergency transport operation has taken a significant financial hit due to COVID-19 and continues to deal with challenges in other areas, including the safety and protection of its first responders and the ongoing effort to fairly compensate these skilled emergency medical technicians and paramedics.

That was the gist of a report by Michael Gugliuzza, the agency’s director of medical operations, at this afternoon’s Genesee County Legislature’s Human Services Committee meeting at the Old County Courthouse and via Zoom videoconferencing.

Gugliuzza said program expenses increased by more than $115,000 for personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 while net revenue for the period of July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020, decreased by $400,000 due to a decline in ambulance calls and the loss of emergency management services standby revenue from Six Flags Darien Lake.

On a positive note, he did say that funds from the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program and federal stimulus have offset much of the loss.

In Genesee County, Mercy Flight received 143 requests for helicopter ambulance service during that fiscal year, resulting in 76 transports, Gugliuzza said. Fifty-six of the requests were deemed not necessary and 11 were canceled due to poor weather conditions.

He said that a change from Visual Flight Rules to Instrument Flight Rules will enable Mercy Flight to increase its weather-related capabilities.

“We’ve gone from what they call VFR, Visual Flight Rules, to be able to fly IFR or Instrument Flight Rules like the commercial jets and things like that,” he said. “So, this has broadened our capability with inclement weather – to be able to fly through much greater weather events.”

Ground ambulance transport decreased by about 6 percent, he said, with 9,649 calls for service resulting in 7,191 instances of patient contact (transports, lift assists and treatments without transport).

Gugliuzza said the company continues to battle the coronavirus virus from the front lines.

“We’ve worked hard to keep our crews protected,” he said, adding that those who wanted the vaccine were able to be fully vaccinated by mid-January.

He emphasized the importance of keeping staff and patients safe and protected, and thanked Genesee County Emergency Management Services for being “great partners” in meeting the PPE needs.

Gugliuzza said Mercy Flight’s “big challenge coming up now is essentially staffing, manpower and pay rates.”

“It’s a very tough market now between a lot of job openings, people not applying for a lot of jobs, and we’re competing with other industries outside of EMS,” he offered. “Part of that is we’re seeing big shifts in pay rates and those kind of things.”

He said Mercy Flight officials are working with payers (Medicare, Medicaid and others) to try to increase the pay scale. He also urged lawmakers to support first responders “and thus the safety and welfare of their constituents with legislative action when necessary.”

“Many of the fee schedules haven’t been adjusted in years and it really becomes detrimental to not just our agency but to EMS as a whole and other agencies as well,” Gugliuzza said. “We’re going to champion that cause and try to move this ahead in an effort to really make this a better industry for everybody.”

In legislative action, the committee approved an allocation of $12,825 for this year to support Mercy Flight.

Vaccination Process ‘In A Transition’

In a related development, Paul Pettit, public health director for Genesee and Orleans counties, said the vaccination process is in a transition – shutting down the mass vaccination site at Genesee Community College and in Ridgeway, Orleans County as “every county in all of the state sites are really facing a reduction in demand of folks seeking the vaccine.”

“The amount of folks who are getting signed up now doesn’t really need to be in such a large location, so we’re kind of reverting back to a different model,” he said. “We’re taking more of a shift to the health department for a permanent site, so we will be there at least one day a week with walk-ins and/or appointments.”

Pettit said that health department staff is contacting business owners and managers to see if they are interested in on-site vaccinations for their employees and families, and also plan to travel to the various villages for one-day vaccines, either by appointment or walk-in.

“We’ve kind of hit our bulk number, I think, with the people that want it at the moment,” Pettit said. “So, it’s a little harder slogging at the moment and trying to talk to people about the importance of getting vaccinated and what that means to them – but also what opportunities it could afford them, like avoiding quarantine if you’re exposed, being able to go to different events and you wouldn’t have to pay for testing to attend. There’s a lot of different advantages that are out there by getting vaccinated.”

He said Johnson & Johnson (one shot) clinics are scheduled for Wednesday at GCC and at the Office for the Aging, with no appointments required.

“Johnson & Johnson -- one shot and you’re done. Two weeks from now you’ll be fully vaccinated,” he said.

A Mercy Flight helicopter responded to Edgewood Drive in Batavia around 7 o'clock tonight after a man riding a bicycle suffered a medical condition.

A passerby saw the man and pulled him out of a ditch off the roadway and minutes later Mercy EMS and Genesee County sheriff's deputies were on the scene.

Mercy EMS personnel administered CPR to the man, who was transported to Erie County Medical Center. The Town of Batavia Fire Department also was on the scene. The initial call came in around 6:20 p.m.

Submitted photos.

A fundraising event this Sunday called "Cruising for Mercy Flight" has been cancelled.

It was to feature a Mercy Flight helicopter on a tractor-trailer along with vintage automobiles and hot rods, leaving the Genesee County Fairgrounds at about 1 p.m. escorted by Sheriff's deputies for a countywide convoy.

"The sheriff cannot guarantee the safety of the event," wrote Pam Cherry, Mercy Flight Outreach coordinator for Batavia. "We would like to offer participants to email me pictures of their classic cars and we will share them on social media as a virtual classic car show."

Genesee County Sheriff’s Office, especially Undersheriff Brad Mazur, the Genesee County Agricultural Society, and the Batavia and Le Roy police departments were working to make the event possible. It was the brainchild of Bill and Jeanne Freeman.

Send Cherry a digital photo of your ride at: PCherry@mercyflight.org

Looking to literally buy some time while waiting to see if another round of federal stimulus funding transpires, the Genesee County Legislature’s Human Services Committee today tabled a pair of resolutions connected to Mercy Flight and the Genesee County Fair.

After hearing reports from Michael Gugliuzza, director of medical operations for Mercy Flight, and Amanda Gallo of the Genesee County Ag Society that touched upon lower revenues and uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 Pandemic, respectively, committee members voted to hold off on contracts that specified the amount of the county’s financial support for the two agencies.

The resolution for Mercy Flight funding calls for the county to contribute $12,825 to back air medical transfer service in the county for 2020. That amount is the same as what was provided in 2019.

The resolution for the Ag Society has the county’s sponsorship of 4-H Judging and Premiums during the 2020 Genesee County Fair at $11,000, which also mirrors last year’s support.

County Manager Jay Gsell informed the committee that Mercy EMS did receive money for Personal Protection Equipment and from the first round of federal stimulus because of its combined operations (ground and air service), but that wasn’t enough to make up for a drop-off in activity.

“You heard Mike talking about what the ground service and flight service have been experiencing – about a 40 percent drop in their actual service calls, and that’s really since the beginning of this year,” Gsell said. “They’re moving through it with regard to both the commitment that they have and obviously their significant presence here in the county, both at the County Airport and at Gateway II across Route 98 from the original county industrial park.”

The Genesee County Fair currently is scheduled for July 25-August 1, but those dates aren’t etched in stone due to the coronavirus and its impact upon the local business community.

“Once they have a fair date for certain, (funding is done) on a reimbursement basis – once the judging occurs,” Gsell said. “If they have it and they do the judging, then we make the payment based on the invoices, so we have a little bit of time there.”

Committee Chair Andrew Young, noting the lack of revenue and other factors, asked if this is something “that we can hold off on until we understand what’s going on with our revenue?”

To which Gsell responded: “We’d like to think that between the governor and Mr. (Robert) Mujica (Jr., NYS budget director) that they’ll fairly soon start telling us what they’re going to be doing with the state budget … and then we start looking at what that means to us in terms of general state aid and obviously sales tax – with sales tax being the really big driver.”

Gsell also said he hoped that another federal stimulus bill provides money to fund state and local governments by the end of the month, which would mean “another trillion-plus dollars is put into play across the country.”

Committee members Gregg Torrey and John Deleo along with alternate member Gordon Dibble joined Young in voting to table the resolutions, which likely will be placed on the group’s June 1 meeting agenda.

“We will wade through this,” Young said. “The funding through the next stimulus bill is really the wild card. I don’t know that we have a lot of other good news to look forward to … if it doesn’t happen, we’ll have to deal with it.”

Press release:

On Saturday, Aug. 24^th from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., Mercy Flight will host its annual open house at the Mercy EMS Base.

The Mercy Flight Batavia Base, located at 8050 Call Parkway, will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day. We kindly ask you to support this remarkable celebration.

The day will be filled with plenty to enjoy, including a tour of the base, food, refreshments, and activities for the family.

Mercy Flight was founded on the premise of wanting to help more patients during their time of need. Since our inception in 1981, Mercy Flight has grown from one part-time crew to 24/7 air operations in Buffalo, Batavia, and Olean, and ground ambulance operations in Springville, Genesee County, and Niagara County.

Having transported more than 26,000 patients by helicopter and conducting countless ground ambulance missions, Mercy Flight has truly been Western New York’s beacon of hope WHEN MINUTES MATTER.

At Mercy Flight, we pride ourselves on performing our lifesaving services without regard to our patients’ insurance status or their ability to pay. While third-party payers reimburse a portion of each flight’s cost, we rely heavily on the generous support of community contributors like you.

We would greatly appreciate the donation of a product or service to support this essential and well-attended community event. Would you so generously consider donating an item or certificate for our basket auction?

I would be happy to pick up any donations you offer. Please contact me at 585.250.3002 or pcherry@mercyflight.org to arrange.

Pam Cherry, Outreach Coordinator - Batavia, Mercy Flight Inc.

The dedication and ribbon cutting for the new Mercy EMS headquarters on Call Road, off of Route 98, in Batavia, was more than just a celebration of the new facility. It was an expression of gratitude for the Mercy Flight/EMS staff and chance to honor Mercy's cofounder, Doug Baker.

A plaque honoring Baker, pictured above, will be placed on the new building.

For his part, Baker thanked the Genesee County community for entrusting its emergency medical transport services to Mercy EMS and Mercy Flight.

"I'm here to you say thank you for the confidence and courtesy of the acceptance we've had in this community," Baker said. "From the governmental agencies, from the fire and the police, from the hospital, and from the whole community at large. And last but not least certainly the employees. We're very very lucky. Don't think we take it for granted. It's pretty special."

Mercy Flight became Baker's vision in 1981 and he, along with Sister Sheila Marie Walsh, Dr. Matthew Burke, and Dr. James Ehinger, came together to create Mercy Flight that year. It became the first helicopter emergency transport service in New York. The first helicopter based in Batavia was in 2006. In 2006, Mercy EMS became the designated ambulance service for the county.

Since then, the ambulance crew has operated from cramped quarters in the former St. Jerome's Hospital on Bank Street. The new facility not only gives them more space, it will offer better space for training and for eating and resting between calls, especially on long 12- and 24-hour shifts.

Bob Bausch, chairman of the Genesee County Legislature, was among those who congratulated Mercy Flight on its new facility.

"It's a true symbol of your commitment to the residents of Genesee County but more importantly thank you for what you offer day in day out," Bausch said. "You provided an exceptional level of service and this new facility will only enhance those services."

The dedication prayer was offered by Pastor Dan Dart, who noted Mercy EMS came to his aid once and he got to ride in "the whirlybird." He thanked the staff for their dedication to the health and safety of our community.

"Personally, then, on the receiving end, I say, 'Oh wow, I say thank you to all these folks for this building,' " Dart said. "It's going to help facilitate these folks to do the work that they do much more efficiently. It's a great, practical building -- all throughout, just amazing."

Doug Baker

Pastor Dan Dart.

A new, spacious headquarters for Mercy Flight/Mercy EMS will serve as a much-needed home away from home once the ribbon is cut on the new facility off Route 98 in Batavia on May 21.

"I’m looking forward to the crews being able to move into a home," said Bill Schutt, business development manager for Mercy EMS. "That was the whole gist of this thing --  give them a home while they were at work.

"They spend a lot of time here. They spend a lot of shifts here. They spend a lot of time together, probably more so than families. Holiday time when we’re home enjoying our family, they're here still working."

The 12,000-square-foot facility has bays for ambulances in half the space and the other half contains offices, storage, showers, a workout area, a day room, a quiet room, a kitchen suitable for crews to enjoy meals with their families, and a large conference room.

"The space is large enough to house the ambulances, keep them out of the weather and to provide everything the crews need throughout their 12- or 24-hour shifts," said Scott Wooton, VP of finance for Mercy Flight. "If they’re here for a 24-hour shift, they need to be able to prepare food. They need to be able to wash their uniform if they come back from a call where their uniform is soiled.

"They need to be able to rest. They need to be able to sit down and chart stuff. This has been a need right from the start. It’s only that it’s taken nine years for us to put all the pieces together and make it happen."

The $2.5 million facility was largely financed through assistance from M&T Bank and the Genesee County Economic Development Center, which was able to provide tax-exempt financing.

That assistance was critical to making the new building possible, Wooton said.

"We certainly don’t have that much cash on hand so we couldn’t do it without the financing and being able to do it in a tax-exempt way keeps that interest rate more manageable for us and spread it out in a way that the monthly payments are more manageable," Wooton said.

David Ciurzynski, business development manager with Manning Squires Hennig, said one of the key features of the new building is its energy efficiency. The large garage doors that are all glass will allow a lot of natural light into the ambulance bays and all lighting throughout the building is LED. The energy efficiency will help Mercy EMS reduce its operating costs.

The pre-engineered building also helped reduce costs and accelerate construction time.

"We were able to keep the construction period tight so they can get in and get it in use as quickly as possible," Ciurzynski said. A pre-engineered building allows you a lot of flexibility on time because components come quickly but it also gives you a very handsome building they can use for years to come and it’s exapandable."

Press release:

Mercy Flight has teamed up with our trauma community partners to offer Stop the Bleed training in Genesee County. Stop the Bleed is a nationwide movement started in the wake of the active shooter Sandy Hook tragedy.

Since this movement launched, Mercy Flight has jumped on board to train bystanders to be immediate responders to prevent life-threatening bleeding. Bleeding deaths can happen in just minutes, and can easily be prevented. 

Coming up on Saturday, April 7th Mercy Flight is hosting a session with Genesee County Emergency Management to teach how to apply pressure, proper tourniquet use, wound packing and life-threatening bleeding prevention. It will be held at the GCEM office at 7690 State Street Road, Batava.

There are three-time options for the April 7 class: 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Each class is limited to 30 participants. (The 11 a.m. time slot is nearly full already.)

The one-hour course is jam-packed with valuable information for any member of the public, including teachers, coaches, parents.

To sign up for the class, visit Mercy Flight's website here.

Photo courtesy of Sam Kuminecz.

Press release:

It is with great enthusiasm that Mercy Flight Inc., which provides service in Genesee County, announces a major EMS helicopter acquisition: three new 2017 Bell 429 helicopters.

This significant fleet upgrade will help sustain Mercy Flight’s commitment to bringing expert and unparalleled medical care with rapid response for many years to come.

In late October, Mercy Flight signed a Purchase Agreement and placed a deposit with Bell Helicopter for the new helicopters. This opportunity was made possible through a combined $23 million long-term lending effort from the USDA Rural Development Department and M&T Bank. These joint 20-year loans from the USDA and M&T Bank create an affordable option that will allow Mercy Flight to replace its four aging 1980s model BK-117 helicopters.

The helicopters are slated to be completed and delivered ready for EMS operations in the late Spring of 2018.

“These Bell 429s will represent a significant step in our goal to remain Western New York’s independent, nonprofit provider of emergency air medical services for many years to come,” said Mercy Flight’s Founding President and CEO Douglas Baker.

“Our current BK-117 helicopters have been pillars of our operation for a number of years, but this creative financing opportunity provided to us by the USDA’s Rural Development team and M&T Bank will allow us to retire these aging aircraft and replace them with more reliable, modern equipment.”

“USDA Rural Development’s Community Facilities program is designed to assist nonprofit organizations just like Mercy Flight – with equipment like this,” said USDA Rural Development Loan Technician Sandra Snyder. “This funding builds on the USDA’s continued investment and commitment in rural communities throughout New York.

"While the added features, expanded service range, increased speed and state of the art capabilities of these new and dependable airframes are impressive, we at Rural Development in NY also believe the pilots, emergency technicians, dispatchers and ground teams are equally impressive.”

In 2010, Mercy Flight similarly collaborated with the USDA and M&T Bank for joint loans for the organization’s first Bell 429 helicopter. This aircraft has since proven its merit, as has Bell Helicopter’s customer service. Mercy Flight is looking forward to performing its lifesaving, nonprofit mission while flying exclusively Bell 429 helicopters.

“Mercy Flight’s decision to upgrade their existing fleet to all Bell 429’s reflects both the tremendous capabilities of the aircraft and the unrivaled support Bell Helicopter is known for,” said Ron Orndoff, Bell Helicopter Regional Sales Manager. “Their fleet of four aircraft will bring the total to 21 Bell 429’s operating in the Northeast U.S., representing every mission segment.”

Mercy Flight serves the Western New York Community and beyond with its fleet of five helicopters, twenty ambulances, six paramedic fly cars, and exclusive use of a dedicated Learjet to transport patients in need nationwide. Since 1981, Mercy Flight has safely completed more than 27,000 patient missions, including scene emergencies and inter-hospital transfers.

ABOUT MERCY FLIGHT

Mercy Flight Inc., d/b/a Mercy Flight of Western New York and Mercy EMS, is an independent nonprofit provider of medical transport services. It began in 1981 as the first medically-dedicated air ambulance service in New York State. Today, the charitable organization operates four helicopter bases staffed by pilots, flight paramedics and flight nurses in Buffalo (headquarters), Olean, Springville and Batavia.

Long distance air transports are conducted using a Learjet 31 and the same critical care medical teams that staff the helicopters. Flight physicians also join the team as needed based on the condition of the patient.

Mercy Flight’s ground ambulance division, Mercy EMS, provides service for Genesee County, Niagara County, and the Town of Concord and Village of Springville.

Together, the organization’s employees, now over 200 strong, support the mission of providing unparalleled, critical emergency care, in the air and on the ground, “WHEN MINUTES MATTER."

Mercy Flight/EMS broke ground Friday on its new 11,500-square-foot facility off Route 98, just north of the Thruway, in the Town of Batavia.

The facility will become the new staging area headquarters in Genesee County for the ambulance service.

It's a $2 million investment by Mercy Flight and is located on 2.2 acres in the Gateway II project on Call Parkway.

Photo submitted by Mercy Flight.

Press release:

Hackers for Helicopters, a fundraiser for Mercy Flight Inc., will be held on Monday, June 5 at Batavia Country Club, located at 7909 Batavia-Byron Road in Batavia.

Cost is $100 per golfer and includes:

-- 18 holes of golf with cart

-- Lunch and beverages

-- Dinner and a one-hour open bar

-- Commemorative gifts

-- Door prizes and more

Registration begins at 10:30 a.m. and the shotgun start is 11:45 a.m.

Cocktail hour begins at 5 p.m., followed by dinner and awards.

Mercy Flight Inc. is an independent, nonprofit 501 (c)(3) charitable organization that provides air and ground medical transportation for those in need.

For sponsorship information, please call (716) 626-5808 or visit www.mercyflight.org

It was another busy year in Genesee County in 2016 for Mercy Flight, Bill Schutt, director of Mercy EMS locally, told members of the County Legislature at its Human Services Committee meeting on Monday.

The ambulance service received about 8,600 calls, which resulted in about 6,700 transports.

Mercy Flight itself received 189 requests and flew a total of 96 transport missions.

Those 189 requests not only included the time an airship went to a medical emergency scene, but all the times it was put on ground standby or in-air standby or was requested to do so, but couldn't fly because of weather.

Schutt explained that dispatchers operate off a set of protocols for determining whether to alert Mercy Flight to a possible emergency call for the helicopter and sometimes what dispatchers are being told from people at the scene sounds more serious than it might actually be. When a fire chief or medic arrives on scene, the situation can be clarified.

"You don't want to wait for a crew to get there to make an assessment because now you're there waiting for a helicopter," Schutt said.

With Mercy Flight handling all the calls they do, it isn't unusual to periodically get in a situation where all the ambulances are on calls or there is no ambulance close by a particular emergency. That's what makes the volunteer ambulances around the county so valuable.

"As a commercial ambulance, you would think you would want those volunteers to go away, but we need those volunteers," Schutt said. "We need those resources. There are always going to be the days where no matter how many ambulances you have in service, they are not going to be enough."

The Human Services Committee unanimously recommended approval of the Mercy Flight/Mercy EMS contract for the county, along with the continuation of the $12,800 contribution the county makes to help support the nonprofit service.

County Manager Jay Gsell explained that eight counties contribute to Mercy Flight's funding, but as the host county for the main ambulance services office and a host county for one of the agency's helicopters, it was important for Genesee County to provide financial assistance.

"This is part of our commitment, but it also aligns us with this vital service," Gsell said.

Mercy EMS is finding its current ambulance staging area at St. Jerome's on Bank Street a little cramped and not conducive to keeping ambulances ready to roll in all kinds of weather, so it's planning a new 11,500 square foot facility off Route 98, just north of the Thruway, in the Town of Batavia.

The new facility will cost about $2 million and the site plan was reviewed and recommended for approval last night by the County Planning Board.

"There’s no space," said Mercy EMS General Manager Bill Schutt of the current location. "We’re in essentially four old hospital rooms there. There’s very limited parking space, obviously, if you’ve been there. In winter times, it’s especially difficult. Ambulances have fluids in them, medications that need to be kept warm, so you’re trying to run heaters inside them to warm them while parked outside. We don’t have any space there to hold meetings, do training, any additional private spaces, very limited crew space."

The new facility will have eight interior parking bays and additional spaces with electrical hook-ups for ambulances to park outside in emergency overflow situations.

The location, 2.2 acres being split out from an 8.6 parcel, is part of the Gateway II project on Call Parkway, just off of Oak Orchard Road.

Schutt said the new location will have no effect on response times.

There will also be expanded crew space, a meeting and training room.

The new location will also include a purchasing department that will house regional purchasing for Mercy Flight.

Also on Thursday's agenda:

• The board recommended approval of two new commercial buildings on a parcel just north of Home Depot, abutting the Thruway, at 4181 Veterans Memorial Drive. The buildings will be a 12,600 square foot facility that will house medical offices and a 7,500 square foot building that will contain three spaces. Two will be restaurant spaces. The $1.2 million project is being undertaken by Holland Trotta out of Rochester.  A spokesman for the developer told planners that the large space was originally intended for a well-known local restaurant, but those plans changed. The signage on the architectural drawings in the planning board packet for the smaller building show an urgent care business and a Mexican chain restaurant, Qdoba Mexican Eats.
• The board recommended approval of a conditional use permit for 17.4-acre, 2-megawatt solar farm at 2901 Pearl Street Road, Batavia. 
• The board recommended approval of a nine-month moratorium on the planning and construction of solar farms in Stafford, giving officials time to review policies and zoning plans for such facilities.
• The board recommended approval of a site plan review for a new 29,456 square foot paddock at Batavia Downs to be constructed on the east side of the race track. The previous paddock was removed to make room for construction of the new hotel. Currently, stables, are being used for paddock space. Paddocks are where horses and drivers are prepared for each race and return to after the race for washing and testing (winning horses are tested for banned substances, as required by the gaming commission).