Venango County commissioners on Tuesday approved members of the county’s 911 advisory board that was created in May.
The board consists of seven members – two active members of municipal police departments, three active members of one or more municipal and/or volunteer fire departments serving Venango County, a representative of an ambulance service and a community liaison, commissioners chairman Sam Breene said.
The fire department representatives are James Wetzel of the Franklin Fire Department, Chris Prosser of the Emlenton Volunteer Fire Department and Terri Weber of the Oakland Volunteer Fire Department.
The police department representatives are Jamie Carson of the Franklin Police Department and Charlie McDaniel, mayor of Sugarcreek Borough representing the Sugarcreek Police Department.
Tim Fletcher of Community Ambulance Service and Gary Knox, a community member who is a longtime firefighter with experience working for an ambulance company, round out the panel.
Each advisory board member will be chosen by a majority vote of the commissioners and serve a two-year term.
Fire chiefs nominated representatives from their departments to serve as members of the board, commissioner Albert Abramovic said.
The board will “review and study issues related to emergency response within Venango County” and “provide advice and recommendations to the (commissioners) on subjects related to emergency response,” according to a resolution that established the 911 board.
In other business at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, chief clerk Sabrina Backer gave an update on preparations already underway for the November general election.
Backer said she just set everything up in the state system for the election and revamped poll worker training.
“We are over 75% of the way full with pollworkers,” Backer said.
In other news, the commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with Crawford County and the Oil Region Alliance to provide technical support to the Oil Creek Water Trail.
The trail spans a corridor from Centerville to Oil Creek’s confluence with the Allegheny River in Oil City, about 34 miles away, according to a cooperation agreement between the Alliance and the counties.
Hilary Buchanan, the deputy director of the Venango County Planning Commission, said the Alliance will manage the trail and the two counties will provide technical assistance.
Technical assistance includes help with grant applications and GIS mapping, promotion of the trail and advice and support of ongoing projects, according to the agreement.
The commissioners also approved a request to authorize L.R. Kimball, a Pittsburgh-based architectural and engineering firm, to take appropriate action on the county’s behalf regarding an attempt by a contractor to withdraw a bid to rehabilitate the fuel farm at Venango Regional Airport.
County solicitor Rich Winkler said the contractor submitted the low bid for the work at the fuel farm but wanted to withdraw the bid within the time frame that the bid had to be opened, which is something that isn’t allowed.
Two Mile Run County Park manager Luke Kauffman said revenue at the park this year is exceeding last year’s numbers.
“We have a lot of happy visitors,” he added.
Kauffman told the commissioners the fundrasing Jeep crawl last weekend at the park drew 130 Jeeps and went well.
“We will spend the next couple of weeks assessing the trail situation and we will be working with them (Oil Valley Jeeps) in the future,” Kauffman said.
He added that all the proceeds beyond what is needed for trail repairs at the park will go to a fund for dredging part of Justus Lake.
Abramovic also noted that last Friday was the final day for the COVID vaccine clinic at the former Bon-Ton location in the Cranberry Mall.
The clinic is now moving to UPMC Northwest due to a decrease in demand, Abramovic added.
