By Tricia Pursell
MIDDLEBURG — MIDDLEBURG — The Snyder County sheriff’s department and police chiefs are hopeful they will receive an approximate $200,000 grant to increase their crime-stopping force through a combined database system.
Snyder County Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the submission of the grant application for stimulus funds through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
They agreed to support the filing of the application, including the $7,500 maintenance fee required annually after 18 months, at the county’s expense. The money would be included in the general fund budget, if the grant is received.
“If you feel this technology in your vehicles is worth $7,500 a year, then I’m OK with it,” said Commissioner Joe Kantz.
The grant, which will be between $185,000 and $225,000, will provide software and laptop computers for approximately nine to 12 patrol cars in Selinsgrove, Shamokin Dam, Middleburg and Spring Township.
The main database will be located at the county’s emergency services center.
The county’s police departments are currently operating on individual databases, according to Lucas Bingaman, a deputy in the sheriff’s department. “We can’t share information that easily.”
With the new secure, broadband network, including a wireless modem in each police car trunk and GPS-style mapping, the departments will be able to track and capture criminals more quickly by sharing information with one another.
“They will be tethered to the network, no matter where they go,” said Commissioner Malcolm Derk.
Derk said there had been discussions of including Sunbury, Northumberland and Point Township, but it would have created some problems with submitting the grant.
“We all know crime doesn’t stop at the Susquehanna River,” he said. “Hopefully we can work together to move it out into Northumberland County, if there is another grant opening next year, or if they would choose to go in it with a local match.”
Commissioner Kantz also said on Tuesday that the Snyder County 911 Center has received the necessary codes to dispatch the Richfield Fire Company during fires that happen near the Juniata County line.
The county’s 911 dispatchers have also been given new protocol in dealing with fires in West Perry Township, which borders Juniata County. The action was taken as a result of a complaint brought to the commissioners’ attention last month by Richfield Fire Chief Dale Maneval, and several other members of the fire company.
The closest piece of apparatus should be dispatched first, Maneval told them, but that hadn’t been happening. The Richfield Fire Company wasn’t being dispatched to fires only one or two miles away until minutes after other companies, located further away, were called to the scene.
According to Kantz, the Richfield Fire Company’s computer-aided dispatch program was older than Snyder County’s system, which resulted in delays. Issues involving the dispatching call boxes were resolved on Monday, he said.
In other business, commissioners approved four contract agreements between the county and Susquehanna Valley Women in Transition for STOP Grant program funding through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime & Delinquency: $8,371 will go to Snyder County Court, and an additional $8,750 through stimulus funding, and the District Attorney’s office will receive $85,279 and $70,000 in stimulus funding.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners approved a contract for appraisal services with Noone & Associates Inc. as a result of 15 commercial tax assessment appeals filed by stores at Monroe Marketplace and the Susquehanna Valley Mall for 2010. The estimated total fee is $31,000, to be shared by the county at 23 percent, Monroe Township at 11 percent, and the Selinsgrove School District at 66 percent. A pre-trial has been scheduled for the first quarter of 2011.
