By Jim Hook
The Public Opinion

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Groups representing first responders across Franklin County have endorsed the $4 million change to the Franklin County emergency communications system.

Sixteen people attended the nearly two-hour meeting of the Franklin County Commissioners. Commissioners heard from police, fire and ambulance.

"You are being asked to spend a lot of money in perhaps not the best of economic times," said William Little, chairman of the county's Local Emergency Planning Committee and lifetime ambulance volunteer. "The public is going to hold you accountable for your reasonableness and prudence."

"The county didn't do this in a vacuum," Commissioner Robert Thomas said. "We involved the users."

"I represent the guys on the other end of the radio, the important guys," Franklin Fire Company Fire Chief Mark Trace said. "The volunteers in this county save the county millions of dollars each year. We deserve the best radio system there is. If you can make this system last 15 years, that's the way to go."

Doug Bitner of the EMS Council said the council voted unanimously in favor of the new system.

Ben Thomas of the Franklin County Emergency Services Alliance said the alliance, comprised of municipalities and emergency service providers, also unanimously endorsed the system.

A spokesman for the Franklin County Drug Task Force said the system will have a uniform encryption system that allows officers conducting a drug bust to radio to each other without someone eavesdropping on a scanner.

The task force installed its own encryption system in 1990 and other police agencies followed suit, each with their own encryption, he said.

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