Sheriff Scott Cicero told the Public Safety Committee on Aug. 6 that the county fair implemented infrastructure changes this year (paving, fencing, barriers and altered ingress/egress) that improved safety and collaboration between sheriff's office and fair leadership.
Cicero said the 9-1-1 center experienced an intermittent outage on its non-emergency lines a few weeks earlier that took nearly four days to remedy; the outage did not affect 9-1-1 emergency lines but the sheriff said the prolonged repair time is a concern and the office is working with Verizon and county vendors to minimize future impacts.
Cicero and other presenters praised first responders following a severe head-on crash on State Route 244 where extrication and medevac responses were required. He described strong coordination among volunteer and paid rescuers and said Mercy Flight transported the most critically injured patient.
On staffing, Cicero said the sheriff's office hired 12 corrections officers since May and presently has seven deputy sheriff vacancies and five correction officer vacancies (with two additional retirements pending). He credited HR streamlining for improved recruitment.
The committee approved two MOEs brought by the sheriff: permission to apply for a $3,000 CARES UP wellness minigrant (no county match) and an agreement to join Schuyler, Steuben and neighboring counties to establish a southern-tier regional public safety radio and interoperability network; both measures were carried by voice vote.
A traffic safety concern for County Road 20/State Highway 19 near I-86 Exit 30 was raised; the sheriff said the traffic safety board and a DOT representative could take the matter up and deputies could conduct a traffic survey to collect data.