Lycoming County commissioners approve Public Safety Department pilot program with Lycoming Regional Police

An agreement with the Lycoming Regional Police Department (LRPD) as a partner in a pilot program which will supplement the county's 911 radio dispatch support was approved by the Lycoming County commissioners this week. The program will be funded through 911 grant funds.

Director or Public Safety Forest Rothchild told the commissioners that the program would decrease the cost of overtime and contracted staffing now utilized to fill that role.

"Our newest telecommunicators, as they are moving through their phone training to their next phase, telecommunication officers often have to work side by side and are not able to cover the consoles 100% solely. The empty seats that are being filled today, with overtime and contracted staff...are costing us nearly $15,000 a month," Rothchild said.

"The officers that would be coming on board to join us are already familiar with some of the radio and the terminology, along with the region. The clear limits are that they are not taking full 911 calls. They are not handling EMD (Emergency Medical Dispatch) or priority dispatch, fire or EMS," he said.

Training for the officers is one on one with in-house staff and takes about two to three weeks. The LRPD will be set up as a vendor and they will invoice the Rothchild's department on a monthly basis at the officers' current hourly rate which ranges from $25.60 to $36.53 per hour with a cap of $37 per hour.

"Even with the cap and full-time hours one officer cost is about $6,400 a month, less than half of what our contractor cost is at this time," Rothchild said.

He said his department was asking for a 60-day evaluation, training the progress, the shift coverage, the overtime avoidance, and the quality assurance that has to come along with that.

"If the results hold, this would become a model that we can offer to other regional agencies, and a step forward to ending our reliance on contracted staffing," he said.

Rothchild thanked Chief Christopher Kriner for stepping forward as the first partner in the new program.

"This is new ground for both of us, and he chose to build it with us," he added.

When asked the status of staffing in his department, Rothchild said, "Recruiting has not stopped. Our goal is to get to about 21 personnel, which is actually more than what our current TDA is slotted for...But we're still recruiting, we're still training," he said.

Other agenda items approved by the commissioners included: purchase of a diesel particulate filter from Cleveland Brothers in the amount of $14,371 for a bulldozer at the landfill; and the ratification of the period of performance extension with PEMA (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency) for the BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) 2021 grant.

The commissioners, acting as the Board of Assessments Revisions, approved the following real estate tax refunds:Philip and Tammy St. James – $437.80, due to an update on a veteran's exemption; Robert and Patricia Zukowski – $309, due to a fire at the property; and Emil P Horner – $146.30, due to a fire at the property.

The following exemption requests for real estate taxes were also approved: Duboistown Borough, a water retention basin at Summer Street, $168; Calvary Baptist Church, Broad Street, Jersey Shore, two parcels of vacant land, one at $64.78 and the other, $119; and Eugene Grafius American Legion Post 104, fenced in yard attached to the building, $26.25.

The next commissioners' meeting will be at 10 a.m., Oct. 8 at the Commissioners' Board Room, 3rd floor, Third Street Plaza, 33 West Third St.