JOHNSTOWN – Fulton County supervisors have authorized the county Civil Defense Department to spend more than $55,000 on new haz-mat suits, radios and other emergency-related equipment and services.
Supervisors approved the spending and adjustments to the budget at the full board meeting earlier this month. Grant funds from the state Office of Homeland Security will cover all of the costs.
Civil Defense Coordinator Allan Polmateer indicated $51,165 from a $125,500 hazardous-materials grant awarded in 2011 will cover haz-mat suits, command radios, a weather station, command boards and on-site training for first detectors.
“There won’t be another grant we can get that much money off,” Polmateer told the supervisors’ Public Safety Committee earlier.
From an $81,000 homeland security program grant from 2011, the county OK’ed spending $1,286 on breathing masks and $929 on confined space equipment.
Using a 3-year-old $37,800 animal sheltering grant, the county will purchase a $263 weather radio and spend $3,025 on miscellaneous supplies, such as sawdust for rescued animals, Polmateer told supervisors.
In other action taken at the Board of Supervisors meeting:
- ?Supervisors approved spending about $230,000 to purchase a Western Star dump truck and plowing system for the Highways & Facilities Department. The truck and plow prices were secured through a statewide bid.
- ?Former Johnstown mayor, supervisor and Board of Education member William Pollak was appointed to represent Johnstown on the county’s Office for the Aging Advisory Board. Pollak, who lives in the city, is a retired Johnstown teacher, having spent 32 years teaching participation-in- government and other social studies classes.
- ?Supervisors passed a resolution in memory Hadley Depuy, the second president of Fulton-Montgomery Community College, who recently did. Depuy was president from 1972 to 1977 and was instrumental in building college programs, including technology, arts, science and nursing, according to the resolution.
- ?The county Public Health Department received permission to permanently sets its hours as 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, matching the hours its nurses work. Before September, the office was open until 5 p.m.
- ?Retired nurse and nursing educator Judith Gisondi of Gloversville was appointed to the county Local Emergency Planning Committee.
