SMETHPORT — The very public outpouring of care and support for Buffalo Bill Damar Hamlin became an impassioned plea for volunteerism at Tuesday’s meeting of the McKean County commissioners.
Chairman Tom Kreiner gave a brief statement at the beginning of the meeting.
“No doubt many McKean County residents tuned into last Monday night’s NFL game between the Bills and Bengals. What transpired was almost unthinkable. A 24-year-old man lay motionless, a victim of cardiac arrest. What happened next was equally amazing,” Kreiner said. “A team of trained professionals snapped into action and quickly diagnosed and then began treating the young man with CPR.”
He continued, bringing that critical situation on a football field into people’s hometowns in a heartfelt “what if” scenario.
“Change the scenario from the football field of last Monday night to the downtown of your city, borough or municipality. What happens when the call goes out for assistance and the response is delayed while ambulance or fire personnel wait to assemble a response crew?
“Worse yet, what happens if no one answers the call and a neighboring service has to be summoned for help? What about the citizens that don’t belong to an agency? Do they have the training to assist until more help arrives? ln situations like this time is critical!”
Kreiner said, “Over the past years, our communities have been calling out for more volunteers to get involved in volunteer fire departments and ambulance services so that we can better protect our neighbors, friends and most importantly our families. The number of volunteers has dwindled dramatically to the point where many services are forced to stop providing services.”
Maybe this nationally recognized tragedy can be a local call to action.
Calling it a simple request, Kreiner said, “lf you have thought about joining a volunteer service but never followed through, please reconsider. lf you have been a member but stepped away for any reason please consider rejoining. lf you never gave it a thought, please do. lf nothing else, make it a point to get training in CPR administration and AED use.”
He thanked the men and women who serve as first responders, as well as those trained in CPR and first aid.
Also at the meeting, Jim Chorney, executive director, and Elise Grovanz, economic development coordinator, for North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission, spoke to the commissioners about a push they are doing to help secure funds for projects.
“We are reaching out to our six counties looking for projects that are seeking funds,” Grovanz said. “We want to be the middleman. How can we help you get the money.”
She said municipalities and businesses can apply on their website to learn about the assistance they can offer. “Our grant writing is free,” she added.
“We have a team at North Central who looks at these applications,” Chorney said. “The way we sold this program to the (Appalachian Regional Commission) is we have a lot of small municipalities that don’t have the capacity to apply for these programs,” he said. “We’re looking at the whole array (of funding sources) to see what fits best. We can’t guarantee anything, but we’re looking at how we can help. It’s a service we offer for free.”
Chorney, and Commissioner Carol Duffy, again reminded residents to look at the FCC broadband map for their address.
“If they feel the FCC map does not reflect the service available at their residence, they need to file a challenge,” Duffy said.
Chorney reiterated the importance of doing so, saying that funding will be based on the map.
“It’s extremely important for funding,” he said. “Anyone who is interested can challenge it. They can call our office and we can walk them through it.”
Chorney also spoke about North Central planning an electric vehicle study “to see if there are areas that would benefit from vehicle charging stations. From my standpoint, you have tourists coming in, if you want to attract more, you need to have more of what they are looking for. This is that first step.
“We’re looking for three to five locations in each county that would be good sites for charging stations,” he said, adding that the second phase would be actually building them.
“Would you be looking at Routes 6 and 219?” asked Commissioner Cliff Lane.
“As long as that isn’t what the state is doing,” Chorney said. “We’re looking at tourist attractions. Hopefully we’ll get a good comprehensive report that will let us move to the next phase, to see if there’s money to build these things.”
The next meeting of the commissioners will be held at 10 a.m. Jan. 24.
