Survey: Chester County Residents Upbeat But Hate Traffic, High Taxes

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Chester County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chester County residents like the county’s open space and scenery, but also value highly its proximity to metropolitan areas. They use its libraries and parks like gangbusters, and are confident its 911 and emergency response systems.

They do not, however, like the traffic and road conditions they encounter or the taxes they pay.  They wish the county government would do more to help create job and business opportunities and manage the suburban sprawl that continues to plague the countryside.

In general, county residents see they place they live as an excellent place to raise a family, get a good education, and buy a home — even if they have a sense that it might not live up to the same expectations when looking to retire, open a business, or find a job.

Those, in part, are the results of a unique survey done to assess the quality of life in Chester County, completed earlier this summer by the Center for Social & Economic Policy Research at West Chester University.  The survey results follow up on a similar project completed in 2009 by Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

Read more:   http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130729/NEWS01/130729442/survey-chester-county-residents-upbeat-but-hate-traffic-high-taxes#full_story

City Of York Mulling Fire Company Regionalization Option

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The City of York, PA has four fire stations and a staff of 67 firefighters.  However, like all municipalities, York is looking at ways to cut costs.  Kim Bracey, York’s Mayor, said she will not close/merge any fire stations or cut staff if it will cut response time.  However, Mayor Bracey said the Fire Committee is looking into options like regionalization and cooperative agreements with other fire services organizations, including volunteers.

Emergency services costs are a big-ticket budget item and Bracey said city government needs to be responsible stewards of the taxpayer’s money.  If working together as a regional fire department can achieve the same high-quality results, at a lower cost, that option needs to be explored.  It has worked for many police departments.  York County already has regional police departments.  The Fire Committee will present their fire/EMS modernization plan to the public on April 5^th.

The City of York has 43,718 residents (2010 census) and a land area of 5.20 square miles.  Mayor Bracey was the city’s Community Development Director before being elected mayor.

City Of Harrisburg Switching To Dauphin County Police Dispatch Services

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Mayor Linda Thompson announced that the City of Harrisburg will move their emergency police dispatching to Dauphin County.  Dauphin County has been courting Harrisburg for months now trying to get the city to commit to a switch.

If all goes well, it will take Dauphin County about six months to ramp up before the switch.  The county feels this transition of services can be accomplished seamlessly.

Fortunately, Dauphin County Commissioners included money in their 2011 budget in the event Harrisburg decided to use the county dispatch services.

Harrisburg officials feel they can save an estimated $400,000 a year if they make this change.

Montgomery County has been slowly taking over these services for many municipalities in our area.  Centralization of services usually makes sense from a cost saving perspective.

Update!  And informed reader has supplied this information about Montgomery County dispatch centralization:

There are currently seven departments who have not made the switch: Abington, Lower Merion, Narberth, Upper Merion, Lower Providence, Upper Dublin and Pottstown.  Horsham and Montgomery are planning to switch in the next couple weeks.

 

Lower Providence did switch but was unhappy with the results and resumed their own operations.