TESCO FREE DELIVERY

Saturday 2 June 2012

Essex County sheriff wants to go high tech - Press Republican

Essex County sheriff wants to go high tech - Press Republican

ELIZABETHTOWN — The Essex County Sheriff’s Department wants to go high tech.

Sheriff Richard Cutting is seeking permission from the County Board of Supervisors to use about $95,000 in U.S. Department of Homeland Security grants to buy a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, two all-terrain vehicles, a transport trailer, digital fingerprint scanner and wireless mobile data terminals for patrols cars.

The anti-terrorism undertaking gets a final vote from the Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning at 10.

Some members of the Board of Supervisors have asked the Sheriff’s Department to look at cutting costs, not increasing them, Supervisor Edward Hatch (D-Willsboro) said.

He was one of two supervisors to vote against the purchases at the Ways and Means session this week.

“This is a door opener to increase the size of your department,” Hatch said. “The Sheriff’s Department is in need of areas to cut back.”

‘DUPLICATION’

Many State Police cars have mobile data terminals, Hatch said, so the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t need its own.

The laptop-size devices enable police to run license-plate and wanted-persons checks from their cars.

“This is duplication,” Hatch said. “You have a State Police barracks in the same building. A lot of the same things are there.”

The County Public Safety Building in Lewis houses a State Police station, the Sheriff’s Department and County Office of Emergency Services.

Hatch asked whether the SUV would be used only for operations related to Homeland Security.

“It’s just another vehicle for the Sheriff’s Department,” County Manager Daniel Palmer said. “I don’t know if it was one of the grant choices. The grants have very specific things you can choose to purchase.”

BIGGER GAP

The other supervisor who voted against accepting the grants, Thomas Scozzafava (R-Moriah), said the county still has to spend money on the project.

“The grants are great, but then you have to maintain the equipment, service it, put gas in it.”

After the meeting, Cutting defended his use of the Homeland Security funds.

“There is nothing in the grants that would increase the size of the agency for manpower. As to maintaining the vehicles, we utilize County Highway (Department). These will be used for legitimate law-enforcement and public-safety reasons.”

Cutting said that buying cars with grants saves the county money.

“In some cases, they will create a bigger gap between county-purchased vehicles — meaning that we can go longer before having to buy a county vehicle to replace aging, unsafe patrol cars.”

Email Lohr McKinstry:

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com


Source: pressrepublican.com

Lidl’s plan for new branch put on hold - Times of Malta

German supermarket chain Lidl has been told its application to build a branch in Xewkija will not be considered until it proved the development will not negatively affect nearby retailers.

At a hearing held yesterday, the planning authority’s Environment Planning Commis-sion put off a decision pend-ing the outcome of a retail impact assessment.

Lidl was also told that it would have to obtain the nec-essary traffic-related certification from Transport Malta before its application could be considered.

Objecting to the proposal, architect Franco Montesin said that registered objectors had not been informed of the proposal’s most recent information.

Traffic concerns were what mainly worried architect Annamaria Attard Montalto. She insisted the applicant had to give priority to traffic safety concerns.

Fellow objector Astrid Vella, from Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, said she was extremely pleased with the commission hearing deferral.

“It’s a very good, serious outcome. The board’s handling of the issue was exemplary and a good example of what one would hope to see at every hearing of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority,” she said.

Attempts at contacting proposal lead architect Edwin Mintoff proved unsuccessful.


Source: www.timesofmalta.com

No comments:

Post a Comment