Malta-Stillwater EMS Director of Operations Michael Evans poses with Executive Director Scott Skinner in front of an open ambulance. Photos by Jonathon Norcross

MALTA — Malta has been growing so rapidly that some town board members have recently called for a development moratorium.

There’s the massive GlobalFoundries campus, which will soon grow even larger when a new $575 million center is built. Around 100 full-time jobs are expected to materialize over the next five years thanks to the expansion.

There’s a 293-unit development planned for Route 9 that could add hundreds of new residents and another 40,000 square feet of commercial space to the town.

There was also an attempt made late last year to replace the Albany-Saratoga Speedway with a 700-unit development, though that plan hit a dead end. Next to the speedway, however, is a new, 13,000-square-foot, $3 million office for a solar company. 

All of this new infrastructure and population growth has created some challenges for the Malta-Stillwater Emergency Medical Services (EMS) team, including higher call volumes (they’ve already received more than 1,000 in 2025), harder-to-retain employees, a decline in volunteers, and newly built elevators that are too small to accommodate nine-foot-long ambulance stretchers. 

“A lot of times, that’s a problem; trying to maneuver, trying to get a patient out of their apartment to get them to the hospital and you have to try to manipulate the stretcher to get them out of there,” said Lenore Norris, a member of the Malta-Stillwater EMS board of directors.

“New York State code doesn’t necessarily consider EMS stretchers as an important item because they do allow for smaller elevators,” said Executive Director Scott Skinner.

New York also doesn’t formally recognize EMS as an essential service, though attempts have been made in the state legislature to change that. An essential service designation would have a significant impact on funding, which has been a persistent issue for many EMS agencies, including the one in Malta. EMS agencies are dependent on revenue from Medicare and Medicaid, both of which can reimburse below the cost of care. Private insurers also often deny emergency claims.

“Insurance companies are holding onto their money, not paying. They’re making copays higher. They’re making the cost to the customer more and it’s hard to collect. So we have to go to the towns for funding,” Skinner said. “There are no good solutions, other than making it an essential service.”

EMS agencies seem to be in a state of peril. According to the EMS Leadership Academy, the number of active EMS responders in New York State declined by 17.5% between 2019 and 2022. Additionally, over the past decade, the number of ambulance services in New York State has decreased by 9%, from 1,078 to 982. Nationwide, nearly 60% of EMS agencies report insufficient staffing to meet 911 call demands. 

“We have to keep people employed,” Skinner said. “If we don’t have people, that’s our biggest asset. We can have all the nice ambulances and equipment in the world but if we don’t have people that deliver a service, if we don’t have two people in every rig, we can’t run those rigs. There’s a real problem nationwide with getting people to do EMS.”

Despite its challenges, the Malta-Stillwater EMS has been serving the community since 1961, responding to tens of thousands of 911 calls with what Skinner called “emergency rooms on wheels” equipped with ventilators, CPR devices, and cardiac monitors.

“People in EMS, especially our agency, these are people with a heart and they do it because they have a heart,” Norris said. “They enjoy doing patient care and that’s the priority.”

“I’ve been in fire and EMS since I was 18,” Skinner said. “I’ve always liked to help people…My whole adult life, it’s kind of the only thing I know.”

For more information on employment and volunteer opportunities at the Malta-Stillwater EMS, visit https://maltaems.org/volunteer-careers/.


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