Lawrence County approves renewal for 9-1-1 quality‑assurance software; chair gets briefing on burning‑ban process

The Lawrence County Board of Commissioners voted Sept. 23 to approve Resolution 313, renewing the county’s agreement with Quality Enhanced Management Systems to provide a quality‑assurance platform for the county’s 9‑1‑1 telecommunicators. Chad Strobel, director of the county’s public safety department, told the board the system automates the selection of 2% of dispatched incidents for supervisor review and produces the training and certification reports required by the county’s 9‑1‑1 plan and Commonwealth audits. “This system has all its reports where we just click the date range and it prints out everybody’s training,” Strobel said. The nut graf: The platform is intended to ensure telecommunicator compliance with policy, maintain audit records and help the county meet an unspecified Commonwealth requirement for a documented quality‑assurance program for emergency communications. Strobel said the county negotiated a lower price after earlier differences over cost. “They said it was $53,000 before we get to negotiation. This year went up a little bit. It’s 26,000, $250,” he said. The board approved a one‑year contract beginning Jan. 1, 2026. During the same agenda item, a commissioner asked Strobel to summarize the process for implementing a county‑wide burning ban. Strobel explained that local municipalities may enact their own burning bans and that a county‑wide ban involves a multi‑step process: a petition from county fire chiefs (the lower of 10 chiefs or 10% of chiefs), submission of written correspondence to the county, review by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Forestry Unit, a letter of support from that state unit, a public meeting with required advance advertisement under the Sunshine Law, and a waiting period before enforcement. “So it’s not a quick turnaround,” Strobel said, adding that local municipalities retain authority to act independently. The board took the resolution to a vote after a motion and second; the roll call vote was recorded as yea by the commissioners and the motion carried. The ending: The county will implement the new contract starting Jan. 1, 2026, and county staff will continue to coordinate with fire chiefs and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources on any future burning‑ban requests.