'Glitches' Persist for PA Counties' Consolidated Dispatch

Complaints about equipment failure at the Central Susquehanna Regional 9-1-1 serving Snyder and Union counties are continuing several months after the system was consolidated.

"I understand it's a new system and there will be bugs, but it's been six months," said Keith Martin, fire chief in McClure.

Snyder County Commissioner Joe Kantz said communication "glitches" are being worked out with the help of a new communication tower in Mifflin County that should "eliminate quite a bit of the static" on emergency responders' radios in the western part of the county.

Kantz said he hasn't received any calls of concern from first responders while the issues are being worked out.

Martin said he didn't raise any issue with 9-1-1 Executive Director Cheryl Stiefel because of the way his complaints were handled in May when he raised issues about poor reception on volunteer firefighters pagers.

"They've been promising us it would be worked out. I'm sick of hearing excuses," he said.

Stiefel, who notified the commissioners that she will be stepping down as executive director after five years, said they are working on the problems.

"In a perfect world all primary methods would work 100 percent but that just isn't the case with technology," she said. "This is why all 9-1-1 systems are built with redundancy. We continue to strive to build and keep primary methods working as close to 100 percent as possible, if it is not, secondary methods are used until the primary are back up. If it were easy we'd never experience any issues."

Stiefel declined to comment on her resignation. Kantz said Stiefel is taking another position but didn't indicate when she will leave the county post.

"She's done a great job for us," he said. "It takes the right person to be able to stand up to the scrutiny of the people she has had to face every day."

The joinder board overseeing the regional 9-1-1 system will meet to discuss finding a replacement, he said.

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