(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

District Attorney David Lozier approached the Commissioners at Wednesday’s meeting with some good news–at least at the start. Lozier thanked the Commissioners for their help in getting two grants approved: a $2.6 million grant approved by the state for law enforcement technology, and a federally approved grant for a rapid-DNA machine at an amount of $580,000.

The next request from DA Lozier, however, drew less support. He spoke about coverage for the health insurance of those working in essential services, and noticing that the plan put in place in 2017 “What I’m looking for is the authority to work with the solicitors to draft a new generation of agreements for the Anti-Drug Task Force and ESU,” Lozier stated, “to add a paragraph that would state that the County would cover that one-third ‘lung and heart gap’ for an officer injured on operation during training.”

Commissioner Jack Manning did not hide his feelings about the request that was made: “I’m hesitant on this because of the liability,” he stated. “The potential liability on this scares me…we have a lot of health and safety things happening in Beaver County that I think are of a higher priority for our attention than the ESU and the ‘heart and lung’ thing.”

Those “things” that Commissioner Manning referred are the recent emails that the Commissioners have been receiving about the elongated response times to emergencies throughout the county, which have led to complaints and lawsuits by those affected. “The issue is on the end that we don’t have direct curfew over, which is the ambulance services,” Manning said. “All of whom are in short supply of technicians and drivers to do that.”

County solicitor Garen Fedeles showed the Commissioners the 43 resolutions that will be voted on at the Public Meeting on January 12, including a $805,000 grant for Beaver County Libraries, a “tan note” for Human Services, and a agreement for stop loss insurance in the county. Fedeles also provided updates on Stone Quarry Road, stating that the county found no water leak in the hillside, and that the increase in precipitation has led to recent circumstances.

The next Work Session for the County Commissioners is scheduled for January 18 at 10:00 AM at the Beaver County Courthouse.