Residents who appreciate dividing lines for their communities may not be happy with recent decisions by municipalities that provide ambulance service. The latest to make a call on that issue, that may hurt their neighbors, was Silver Creek.

Earlier this week, the board voted unanimously to restrict service to the village unless calls require an additional ambulance in the towns of Sheridan and Dunkirk. “This extra call volume has been taxing on our volunteers,” Trustee Marv Cummings said. “We need to provide our residents and the residents within our certificate of need this service first. However, in cases where more than one ambulance is needed, our volunteers will be there to assist. The village of Silver Creek is lucky to have a very dedicated group of first responders like we do and we definitely don’t want to burn them out and take them away from their families more than we have to.”

In recent years, Chautauqua County implemented a flycar system to handle emergency calls in rural areas. As more municipal departments stay close to home, it’s likely the county emergency personnel will be taking on additional responsibilities.