(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
The usual quick-paced nature of past work sessions was not present on May 9, as the Beaver County Commissioners encountered a slew of concerns, complaints,
The first major issue brought forth was presented by Treasurer Sandie Egley, who in recent days had been fielding phone calls from county citizens in regards to the status of their tax checks. The usual three to four days (per Egley) that it takes for the tax checks to be processed by the Beaver County Treasury has become compounded by the processing by one of the county’s parent banks they affiliate and work with.
“They would like us to scan these and send in an EFT (electronics fund transfer) to them to speed up this process,” Egley stated in regards to conversations with the bank. “I’m not real happy about that, because it will cost the county money to write the program for our standard to be able to link to the bank.” Egley also stated that there will be additional bank fees that will be required with the move, which she estimated would require a monthly budgeted total of $1,000 from the county.
Another major concern was pushed by Public Works director Dan Colville, who spoke to the Commissioners about issues regarding the Community Development building in Beaver Falls. The air conditioning unit for the building was installed atop a twelve-foot-high deck, which according to Colville was installed “completely wrong” and has become impossible to repair because the deck is “starting to rot”. Colville added that any remedy to fix the situation would cost several thousand dollars.
The most extensively discussed issue throughout the work session was the continuing complaints about lacking response time from local ambulances, bringing up the possibility of developing a quick response service for Beaver County. Emergency Management director Eric Brewer discussed the situation openly with Commissioner Chairman Dan Camp, who approached the idea as a potential solution to assist response time for accidents and house calls in the area.
Brewer estimated that the annual cost for operating a QR unit would be roughly $100,000, which would mainly go to the workers operating the unit. However, nothing was cemented at the work session.
The next Commissioners’ work session is scheduled for May 17 at 10:00 AM.