When: Columbia Borough Council meeting, Aug. 22.
What happened: The borough's safety committee will meet to consider updating its policies after Columbia waited a day before sending out a text notification about a shooting at 2:50 p.m. Aug. 5 near the intersection of Third and Cherry streets.
Why it matters: The borough has no set rules for letting people know immediately about emergencies via TextMyGov, a text-messaging service to communicate with residents. The police department posted information about the shooting on its CrimeWatch website Aug. 5. However, that data wasn't shared with the borough's texting service that day.
The emergency: Bullets hit three cars and four residences near the Market House. Witnesses told police they saw two men wearing dark clothing open fire on another person walking in the area. The targeted individual escaped unharmed.
Quotables: "Why did it take 24 hours?" asked Sharon Lintner, council member. President Heather Zink said, "I thought this was the whole purpose of TextMyGov."
Response: "The staff that we had on did not have the ability to post," said police Chief Jack Brommer. Mark Stivers, borough manager, said he can send out text messages at any time and will do so once the police department or an authorized borough staff member sends him a statement. "I won't create the statement," he said.
More: Brommer and Mayor Leo Lutz both said officers don't have time to write a statement for text messages while they are handling an emergency.
TextmyGov: The free texting service, which started a year ago, allows residents to sign up to receive messages about items such as trash collection changes, road closures and snow days. Residents also can text the borough about problems. The borough pays about $5,500 a year for this service.
GAYLE JOHNSON | For LNP | LancasterOnline
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.