December 2, 2015

When the long-awaited Chester County Public Safety Training Center opened in September 2012, it represented a partnership among multiple agencies. The project had languished on the drawing board for decades and took an unprecedented collaboration to bring it to fruition.

On Tuesday, Dec. 1, representatives from many of the parties involved in the project gathered at the Chester County Commissioners meeting to celebrate the national recognition the project received: a 2015 design award from the Fire Industry Equipment Research Organization (FIERO), a nonprofit organization based in Charlotte, N.C., that aims to improve firefighter health and safety by providing educational conferences and networking opportunities.

FIERO, which honors five designs each year, recognized Manns Woodward Studios in association with Stewart Cooper Newell, architects for the Chester County Public Safety Training Center. Robert Tutterow, FIERO’s president, said that the competition drew applications from 30 states as well as several provinces in Canada.

The Tactical Village, the second phase of the county’s complex in South Coatesville and the focus of the award, opened in May. It encompasses four acres of the 95-acre tract on Modena Road and enables responders to hone rescue skills in realistic surroundings, such as trenches, sloping roadways, burning buildings or rail cars. The final phase will be an indoor shooting range.

Rob Manns, a vice president of Manns Woodward Studios, said his company specializes in designing buildings for emergency responders, such as police and fire stations, “I can say without a doubt, you guys have something really, really special here,” he told the commissioners.

Manns explained that projects involving multiple agencies often generate infighting. “The group we worked with [in Chester County] came to us and challenged us to come up with something as a group, not as an architect, but as a team,” he said.

John Haynes, the county’s deputy director of 9-1-1 operations, and Steve Fromnick, the county’s director of facilities and parks, both applauded the multi-department teamwork and behind-the-scenes players with expertise in areas ranging from finance to technology who made the project possible.

“The emergency responders had the vision of what they were looking for in the Public Safety Training Center, and facilities [department], of course, made that happen, and Manns Woodward took the design and made it a reality,” Haynes said.

Commissioners’ Chairman Terence Farrell joked that Commissioner Kathi Cozzone had volunteered to rappel down the side of one of the training buildings in the Tactical Village to celebrate the award.

“Bring it on,” Cozzone responded with a laugh.

In other business, the commissioners noted that the 2016 budget is scheduled for a vote of approval at their meeting on Thursday, Dec. 3. The $522,862,011 spending plan has no tax increase, and the millage rates will remain the same as they were in 2015, Chief Operating Officer Mark Rupsis said.

 

 

A Bucks County accountant is accused of stealing more than $100,000 from a 100-year-old Delaware County woman, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan announced in a press release on Wednesday, Dec. 2.

The release said Jeanne Swain, 58, of Yardley, wrote $116,667.33 in unauthorized checks to cover her own rent expenses and pay for her ex-husband’s rent and medical insurance as she maintained a gambling habit that cost her nearly $300,000 over a five-year period.

An investigation by Det. Edward Kazlo of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Senior Exploitation Unit began after he was notified by Linda Mill, investigations manager for Temple University’s Institute on Protective Services, of a possible theft of funds from the bank accounts of Elizabeth Webb, a resident of Granite Farms Assisted Living in Middletown Township.

Investigators learned that for 22 years Webb had used Swain as her accountant and that that numerous checks from Webb’s Susquehanna bank account written to Swain and other individuals seemed suspicious.

Numerous checks were written to cover Swain’s $1,700 monthly rent, as well as her business rent, and her ex-husband’s rent and health insurance. It was also discovered that Swain used Webb’s account to pay for her own state and federal taxes.

As the result of a search warrant on Swain’s accounts, investigators found various checks had been written to Parx Casino located in Bensalem. Further review of Swain’s accounts and player’s card revealed that she had lost a total of $292,072.53 in gambling activities over a five-year period.

“I want to commend Det. Edward Kazlo as well as Temple University’s Institute on Protective Services who work diligently to protect our elderly residents and bring justice for their families,” Whelan said in the release. “Our seniors deserve to enjoy their retirement without the fear of being victimized.

Any area residents who suspect they or a loved one been a victimized by Swain is asked to contact Kazlo at 610-891-3974.

Swain was arraigned and was released on $250,000 unsecured bail with the condition of home monitoring. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 19, the release said.

When a Chester County deputy sheriff heard a dispatch this past summer about a double overdose, he was a block and a half away.

David Reeves said he rushed to the scene where an ambulance crew was already administering Naloxone to one of two women who were unconscious. He grabbed a kit from his patrol car and began to treat the second victim with Naloxone, a potent antidote for reversing the effects of overdoses.

The women, both of whom recovered, were among 35 people across Chester County who received the life-saving treatment this past year, an outcome that prompted a thank-you luncheon on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at the Good Fellowship Ambulance and EMS Training Institute in West Chester.

A year ago, Good Fellowship took the lead in organizing Project Naloxone, a program designed to provide police departments and law-enforcement agencies throughout Chester County with the training and medication to reverse opioid overdoses.

The need is dire. Since 1990, drug overdoses have nearly tripled nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control.  More than 20 overdose deaths occurred this year in Chester County, according to law-enforcement officials, who say money is driving the transition from highly addictive painkillers to heroin. The painkiller may cost $30 a pill; however, someone can buy heroin for less than the cost of a movie ticket.

Tuesday’s luncheon, emceed by Patrick O’Donnell, a longtime Good Fellowship board member and former county commissioner, focused on expressing gratitude to the numerous partnerships that contributed to the program’s success. They include the Chester County Department of Health, the Chester County Department of Drug and Alcohol, the Chester County Police Chiefs Association, Narcotics Overdose Prevention Education (NOPE) and other community groups.

O’Donnell called the recognition well-deserved, referencing additional evidence of the crisis. He said at least 100 young people between the ages of 18 and 24 died of overdoses in the Philadelphia region this past year. He said the number of overdose deaths for Pennsylvannia was 2,400, about seven a day. Nationally, he said there are “more deaths from overdoses than from car accidents, a startling figure.”

O’Donnell joined Ethan Healey and Kimberly Holman, two of Project Naloxone’s organizers, in pointing out that the initiative could not have succeeded without assistance from lawmakers like state Sen. Andy Dinniman. In 2014, Dinniman led the effort to pass Act 139, legislation that allows police officers, emergency medical responders, firefighters and others to carry Naloxone, also known as Narcan.

Addressing the audience of more than 50, which included all three Chester County Commissioners, Dinniman said, “This is an epidemic; it affects every area of the state.” He said many people deserved credit for the success of Project Naloxone, particularly “Good Fellowship for putting this as a priority.”

Project Naloxone provides Naloxone at no cost to participating police departments for each of their units as well as training on how to administer the drug. When the officer has used the drug, Good Fellowship also bears the cost of replacing it, which is about $70 a dose. “Good Fellowship is doing that because it’s so important,” O’Donnell explained.

Dinniman praised the 37 law-enforcement agencies that are participating. He suggested that perhaps the Police Chiefs’ Association could use its powers of persuasion to get the remaining five police departments – East Whiteland, South Coatesville, Sadsbury, West Brandywine, and West Vincent – on board.

The state senator paid special tribute to Jacki Smiro and Cathie O’Donnell, two mothers who have turned the anguish of losing a child to a drug overdose into advocacy to spare other parents from that pain. Both work with NOPE and attended the luncheon. “Things don’t change unless a group of people decide they’re going to change,” Dinniman said, applauding the mothers’ efforts.

Healey, the Project Naloxone manager, said working with the Health Department and Department of Drug and Alcohol ensures that the people who overdose aren’t forgotten once they’ve been revived. Eventually, he said Good Fellowship hopes to have kits placed in all schools.

Holman, president of Good Fellowship, said she appreciated the willingness of all of the project’s partners to combine their resources. “Each could have easily ignored the problem, believing it too big to confront or left someone else to handle it. They didn’t … Thirty-five lives have been touched by your work; that’s a very big deal,” she said before presenting each of their representatives with a plaque.

After the presentation, Reeves said he was grateful that he had been “at the right place at the right time.” He said it took about four minutes for the woman who had been unconscious to open her eyes and respond to hearing her name called after Naloxone had been sprayed into both of her nostrils.

“It’s a good feeling to know you’ve made that kind of difference,” he said, adding that Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh actively promotes emergency training.

Reeves said his CPR skills were also called into service and resulted in a similar rescue. “This is the second time my training has kicked in,” he said. “It really paid off.”