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The Lycoming County Commissioners approved the purchase of a repeater system which will help alleviate the communication's gap which has plagued the county's Resource Management Services'(RMS) recycling building.
"The entire campus of RMS is a nightmare for communication," RMS director Jason Yorks told the commissioners.
"You have the location, the mountains, the metal buildings, and trying to use radios on the right channels is nearly impossible," he added.
A repeater system will allow communication in spite of any obstructions. The system will be purchased from Keystone Communications at a cost of $29,947. Commissioner Marc Sortman noted that funds for the system come from profits from the landfill.
Yorks noted that Keystone had been called in several times to deal with the issue.
"On a normal basis, it's hard on production. It's hard to get the operator to know where who's at, doing what," Yorks said.
"When it comes to the safety aspect, that is the worst. I noticed that myself when we had a medical issue with the work release person awhile back and when I went to hit the repeater, the channel on my radio, I couldn't communicate with people inside the building. It has been a very big frustration with our staff," he added.
He said that he expects the new system to "eliminate the black zones, the cut outs, whatever you want to call it, where we can't talk to each other."
In other actions, the commissioners approved: the payment of the 2024 Actuarially Determined Employer Contribution in the amount of $400,000 to be paid in two payments of $200,000, one in June and the other in December; a Memorandum of Understanding with the Lycoming County Detective Bargaining Unit regarding severance pay; a first amendment to a Community Development Block Grant agreement extending the contract; and the purchase of C.S. control for a carbonate scale for RMS from General Products & Supply Inc. in the amount of $20,692.
Under personnel the commissioners approved filling the following positions at the rate listed: Marquis Delgado, full-time replacement juvenile probation officer, $21.81 per hour; Aleyah Bathurst, part-time replacement resident supervisor at the Pre-Release Center $18.64 per hour; and Brian Kinney, full-time replacement equipment operator at RMS, $19.62 per hour.
The next commissioners' meeting will be at 10 a.m. Feb. 29 at the Commissioners' Board Room, first floor Executive Plaza, 33 Pine St.