KINGSTON, N.Y. (NEWS10)-- Ulster County is investing $4.9 million into the Emergency Medical Services offered throughout the county. According to an announcement from county officials, the investment is designed to address service gaps and strengthen services within the county.

The investment is part of the EMS Coordinated Coverage Plan, a new plan involving financial support, service coordination through the County Department of Emergency Services and training programs and initiatives to address personnel shortages. The plan includes $2.8 million for core paramedic services, $1.6 million for services for municipalities with EMS contracts and another $500,000 for basic life support agencies to purchase equipment.

"EMS is an essential service for public health and safety, and we face critical service gaps in the county due to declines in volunteers over the years as well as increasing costs," said County Executive Jen Metzger. "The plan we are proposing will help close these gaps, improve response times, and ensure that our residents get the emergency care they need when they need it."

According to county officials, about two-thirds of the 911 calls dispatched in Ulster County are advanced life support calls. The coverage plan will equip agencies with a paramedic for these calls. Also included in the plan are some training and certification initiatives to expand the EMS workforce.

"We have a strong team at the Department of Emergency Services that has been diligently addressing critical EMS challenges, including the significant shortage of paramedics and EMTs, insufficient cost of readiness funding, and increasing call volumes. Ultimately, the EMS Coordinated Coverage Plan is more than a funding mechanism — it is a comprehensive strategy to transform emergency medical services in Ulster County," said Everett Erichsen, Ulster County Department of Emergency Services Director. "Our end goal remains unwavering: to create an Emergency Medical Services system that is patient-centered, accountable, and sustainable. By addressing workforce challenges, providing strategic financial support, and creating innovative coordination mechanisms, we offer a forward-thinking solution to the complex challenges facing emergency medical services in the modern healthcare landscape."

In addition to the plan, the county will be applying for a Municipal Certificate of Need (MuniCON) through the New York State Department of Health. With MuniCON, the Ulster County can oversee contracts and quality of services to ensure a financially viable and efficient approach to the delivery of emergency services.

More information on the EMS Coordinated Coverage Plan can be found on Ulster County's website.

Fans have suspected it for some time, but in Episode 7 of Season 3 of The White Lotus, we finally got confirmation that Valentin and his two Russian friends, Aleksei and Vlad, robbed the hotel.

Clues were seeded earlier in the season: Valentin suspiciously parked his motorcycle under the arm barrier and distracted Gaitok while the van carrying the robbers drove onto the White Lotus property in Episode 2. That didn’t look like a coincidence.

When attending the muay thai fight in Episode 7, Gaitok spots Valentin with his two friends and something about the trio jogs his memory. He notices that Vlad is bald and then flashes back to watching a bald man exit the drivers’ side of the getaway car. The flashback is long and accompanied by foreboding music. Gaitok is fairly certain he has identified the thieves.

Later in the episode, Laurie goes home with Aleksei, having passed up her chance with Valentin a couple episodes back, leaving Jaclyn an opening with the hunky wellness professional. After the two have sex, Aleksei pushes Laurie for $10,000 to help bring his (supposedly) sick mother to Thailand from Russia. When she says she simply does not have that cash, he suggests Venmo or PayPal. (Apparently he has not watched enough TV about sketchy deals to know those apps have pretty strict limits on individual payments to avoid this exact circumstance.)

Read more: Let’s Talk About the Incest on The White Lotus, With Help From Some Experts

Aleksei’s angry girlfriend interrupts that conversation, and Laurie runs to hide in Aleksei’s closet. Inside, she sees a pile of jewelry, including the serpent choker that Chelsea was examining right before the robbery took place. The masked thief had grabbed that gold necklace along with many other expensive items.

Laurie probably doesn’t know what, exactly, was stolen from the hotel. But she can guess that a man who was just pressuring her for $10,000 probably can’t afford this jewelry. Plus, storing it all in a haphazard pile is rather suspicious. She manages to escape out his window, with just a light slapping on the head from the girlfriend.

So, now, the question heading into the season’s final episode becomes: What will Gaitok and Laurie do with this information? I can’t imagine Laurie going to the police—she is too focused on her fight with Jaclyn, and possibly too spooked by Aleksei’s request for thousands of dollars, to spend her last days of vacation finger-pointing at jewel thieves. But Mook just spent an inordinate amount of time on her first date with Gaitok telling him that violence is natural and that he ought to stand up for himself. She seems, in fact, to have gotten the ick when he said he wasn’t sure it was in his nature to fight. Gaitok, who we’ve also recently seen working on his aim at a shooting range, could try to take matters into his own hands and impress the woman he’s pining for. This seems unlikely to end well for him given how many more violent men, from the bodyguards to the thieves, are operating in is orbit.