Chestnuthill proposes emergency center

Chestnuthill Township is planning to building a new shared emergency management facility that will house the West End Volunteer Fire Company, The West End Community Ambulance Association and the township’s emergency operations center.

Officials envision the project could also be an emergency operations center for surrounding communities.

The new building will be directly across the street from the current fire company building on Route 715 in Brodheadsville.

The property is owned by the fire company, but the township is considering taking possession of the property and in turn, ownership of the new facility. The fire company and the West End Community Ambulance have each already signed a memorandum of agreement with the township to occupy the new building. Although it is not yet clear if the ambulance use will be that of a substation or base station.

“Much of this is still in the planning stage,” said township manager Dave Albright. “The plan is to have all three emergency services under one roof.”

The township currently uses the multipurpose room at the township building during emergency situations. The most common use at this time, according to township Chairman, Chuck Gould is during a severe winter storm.

Gould says that the two biggest emergency concerns for the township are related to weather and the transportation of hazardous materials through the township.

“When there is a severe storm like that one storm last winter when PennDOT shut down the interstate, both of those things can come into play,” said Gould. “All of a sudden, we have all of this truck traffic coming through town hauling who-knows-what.”

In the storm

The township is also looking into a more advanced way to handle emergency situations, not only in Chestnuthill, but for the surrounding communities as well.

Albright pointed out that as far back as 1978, the state passed a statute which requires all municipalities to have an Emergency Operations Center, commonly known as an EOC.

“In some townships that might be a desk, a laptop and a cellphone and one guy to man them,” said Gould. “And that might work fine for them, unless one of those things doesn’t work, or the guy is out of town or the emergency is overwhelming. We know that it won’t work in Chestnuthill.”

Gould and Albright described what the multipurpose room looks like during a snowstorm.

Five to seven people are fielding phone calls, checking the township map and directing the road crews. They can stay in that center for a few days if necessary.

Surrounding area

The township belongs to a regional planning organization, CJERP, with Jackson, Eldred, Ross and Polk townships.

“So it made sense to us to look at this as a possible regional emergency operational center,” Gould said.

Chestnuthill has made several presentations to those proposing a joint emergency operations center to be housed at the new building.

The plan is only in the infant stages, according to Albright, who added that the details won’t come into focus until all of the players are identified.

To that end the township has sent an invitation and a memorandum of understanding to each of the member townships. As of this printing Eldred, Polk and Ross have signed the agreement. Hamilton Township has also expressed an interest in being part of the group.

“I think we were the first to sign onto the agreement,” said Gary Hoffman, an Eldred Township supervisor and director of communications for the Monroe County 911 Center.

“From Eldred’s perspective, we are on board, it just makes sense. I think that Dave and Chuck and West End Fire Chief Don Zipp and supervisor Chris Eckert, they know their stuff and they also know how to get along with their neighbors. This could be a really good thing,” Hoffman said.

An emergency

Albright explained what he anticipates the operations center to become.

“We are providing the building, the bricks and mortar,” he said. “We take care of the building inside and out.”

It is anticipated that any emergency situation would work the same from the center as it would from any other location within the member townships. Meaning that if the emergency is taking place in Polk Township, then the Polk Township emergency coordinator is in charge, but the difference would be that there would be skilled, trained volunteers from the other member townships there to man the center in support.

The cost of operating the center is undetermined at this time since Chestnuthill has only made an estimate as to what will be needed for the center.

“We have a good idea what it will take,” said Gould. “But you never know, as these other townships come on board one of these guys might have thought of something that never occurred to us. We are lucky in that a lot of these people have spent their careers in the business of keeping people safe and they are going to bring that with them.”

Albright said he believes that the fairest way to assess the yearly cost of the center is for the townships to pay their share on a per capita basis.

Under that plan, Chestnuthill would have the highest yearly contribution and Eldred the lowest, based on the number of residents on the tax rolls.

The preliminary plan for the center would include a server, computers and monitors, telecommunications, radios and a generator dedicated to the operation.

Chestnuthill is also looking into grant opportunities to offset the cost of the building and the operations center.

When Chestnuthill confirms interest from other townships, officials will schedule planning meetings to discuss the project further.