CHENANGO COUNTY – Although the concept of fly cars may help lessen the severity of the ambulance crisis, members of the county Safety and Rules Committee agreed Wednesday that the fly cars would not be a direct replacement of Superior Ambulance.

In late September, Superior announced it would be pulling its last ambulance from operation in Chenango County Oct. 25, saying that operating in the area was not profitable. In an attempt to alleviate the subsequent ambulance shortage, the county has approved a program to place fly cars in operation throughout the county.

The fly car program would call for county-employed paramedics to drive medically equipped vehicles to an emergency scene, where they would meet an ambulance and help transport and care for the patients.

On Wednesday, members of the Safety and Rules Committee met with County Emergency Management Deputy Director Matt Beckwith to discuss putting a program together.

“This committee has been charged by the Board of Supervisors, who approved the fly car concept, to put together a program based on the service and to refer it to the Finance Committee in order to get it in the budget for 2008,” said Committee Chairman Alton P. Doyle, R-Guilford.