BROCTON — As part of its special meeting last week, the Brocton Village Board decided to opt in with Chautauqua County as part of the EMS Cost Recovery Act, though the motion was made by the board with reluctance from Trustees Bryan Woleben and Mark Belcher.

Village attorney Peter Clark said there were two options, which were either getting out of the EMS business or signing up and having the county take care of the billing. “The money flows from the insurance company,”he said. “If there’s no insurance, then they don’t bill people, so it’s not like they’re going after anybody.”

The board is also pressed for time, as the EMS Cost Recovery Act goes into effect statewide Friday, which is why Clark addressed this at a special meeting, rather than waiting for the next scheduled meeting board.

“They haven’t given us a lot of time to do this,” Clark said. “I think even our next meeting would be a little late.”

In response to the reluctant approval of passing billing over to the county, Brocton Mayor Craig Miller said that they have to have some way of this being handled.

“We have to have something in place,” he said.