SMETHPORT — McKean County will enter a Homeland Security Education Memorandum of Understanding with the Potter County Education Council for commitment of funds to the Emergency Support Training Program Advisory Board after a vote by the county commissioners Tuesday.
The allocation is $20,000 annually for five years.
The PCEC will accept funding and manage this program, which opens in the coming school year at the Seneca Highlands Career and Technical Center in Port Allegany. Designed to fill the void caused by the shortage of volunteers in the area’s emergency services, this curriculum will offer studies for firefighters, law enforcement and emergency medical services.
After the vote, Commissioner Carol Duffy, vice-chairman of the General Advisory Board of the Essential Emergency Services Training Program, said, “Everything is in place to begin the curriculum, and the IU9 directors are to hire the instructor in August.”
Commissioner Cliff Lane, who conducted the meeting, thanked Duffy and Dana Spittler, a Smethport volunteer fireman, who initiated the local efforts that led to the course offerings at the CTC. “You both have done a fantastic job,” he said.
In other news, commissioners authorized the county to enter into an agreement with the Office of the District Attorney for the McKean County Drug Task Force to include the Kane Borough Police Department and its governing board, the borough council.
District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer said a similar agreement has been prepared for Eldred Borough. “Hopefully, the general language as used in these two agreements can be used for all municipalities.”
Commissioners approved some expenditures. One was a three-year renewal agreement with Thompson Reuters for the West Proflex program, which is used in legal research in the McKean County Law Library. The cost is $1,586.79 per month.
The county has entered two maintenance contracts with Penn Power Systems after commissioners’ votes. A three-year agreement is for the generators for the county buildings and tower sites at a cost of $5,225. The second one is for one year and is for the county’s portable generators at a fee of $2,615.
Also gaining the nod was a resolution authorizing the county to renew a three -year contract with Link Computer Corporation for the Information Technology Department. This expenditure will be $31,475.05. Lane said, “This is a hefty amount, but it could cost a lot more if we got hacked.”
The county will apply for two grants. One is to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for the Children’s Advocacy Center for $47,000. The CAC, established in 2012, is a government-based program that provides case management, forensic interviews and family advocacy services in cases of alleged abuse.
The other is a multimodal grant application, this one to the Commonwealth Financing Authority in the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, will be for a sidewalk and parking area project at the courthouse on West King Street.
County Planner Jeremy Morey, who wrote the application, said the proposed work would include lighting moved from poles to the existing wall, widening the sidewalk and adding a new parking area and integrated gutter system. The fire hydrants would be replaced across the street by the Smethport Water Department.
“We should know by December if our application has been approved,” Morey said.
