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The Bedford County 911 Center on Thursday reversed a controversial change it made four months ago by restoring a five-minute interval for ambulance services to commit to answering emergency calls.
Four months ago, the center reduced the time it gave ambulance services to muster a crew to about 2.5 minutes, because of increasingly long and increasingly frequent delays before patients received help, especially after COVID-19 mushroomed in Bedford County, according to officials.
But all seven volunteer ambulance services in the county objected that the shorter interval was inadequate, which, coupled with easing of the COVID-19 outbreak, led to a recent compromise agreement to bring back the five minutes for the first service called although reduced times remain for secondary services, while paging responsibilities for the 911 Center have shrunk.
â- Administration, $78,303.
â- Broadband deployment, $197,076.
â- Payments to small businesses, $2,766,613.
â- Assistance to Blair County municipalities, including the purchase of personal protective equipment, $2,238,874.
â- Nonprofit assistance programs for tax-exempt entities, $511,529.
The Blair County commissioners on Wednesday approved their final report on the expenditure of more than $11 million of federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
Commissioners Chairman Bruce Erb said after the meeting the money was “huge, huge” for many small businesses and nonprofit agencies.
The commissioners Erb, Amy Webster and Laura Burke were on a 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline to submit the final CARES Act report to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.