| By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
The health of the county's citizens – and its finances – dominated the Chester County Commissioners' agenda at their Sunshine Meeting on Tuesday.
Presentations on two key issues, the Pocopson Home and the 9-1-1 system, generated praise and accord – a stark contrast to the dissension that marked earlier discussions.
............Ed Atkins, the county's emergency services director, also received kudos from the commissioners – as well as multiple representatives of myriad emergency response agencies – for his update on the county's long-awaited Voice Radio Project.
A new emergency-services communications system is critical to protect citizens as well as first-responders, Atkins said, describing the current system as outdated. Downingtown Police Chief James R. McGowan III went a step further, calling it dangerous. "It puts the lives of our public safety people at risk," McGowan said. "If we're not safe, citizens aren't safe."
Although few have disagreed that the system needs to be overhauled, a plan by the commissioners this past summer to defray 9-1-1 expenses by reinstating a per-capita tax of about $5.20 per resident generated such sharp criticism from municipal officials that the commissioners abandoned the idea.
Since then, Atkins said falling costs and skilled negotiating by legal counsel resulted in lower pricetags for the project than previously anticipated. He said after a careful analysis of three bids with input from a volunteer advisory committee, he recommended the package from Harris Corp., which uses Metropolitan Communications, an Exton firm, as a sub-contractor, at a cost of about $80.6 million.
McGowan, one of the volunteers and the former head of the Chester County Police Chiefs' Association, called the process "the most inclusive, participatory" one he had seen in 40 years of public-safety service. His remarks were echoed by Ray Stackhouse, who heads the Chester County Fire Chiefs' Association, Leo R. Scaccia, past president of the Chester County Emergency Services Council, and Ron Miller, president of the Chester County Fire Police Association.
"The No. 1 thing we need is communication; we would not be in this room together if we didn't agree," said Scaccia. He said each of the committee members consulted with the rank-and-file, resulting in hundreds of voices that were heard during the process.
Atkins said the contract is in the works and could be ready for approval in two weeks. |
