PRESS RELEASE

From:  East Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Company

            Fredericktown, PA      Washington County

June 24th, 2009

Over this past week end the East Beth Township Volunteer Fire Companies emergency radio tower site located in Vestaburg, Pa was vandalized.  $15,292.80 worth of damage to site occurred. The money for the equipment came from grants and the residents of the Township and Borough through the Fire Departments Truck Fund Drive.

Emergency radio communication equipment that relays emergency communications back and forth from the Washington County 911 Center and alerts its members when a emergency call comes in where totally destroyed. High band and Low band radio’s, power supplies, surge protectors, alarm system, air conditioner and table where destroyed inside the building after the steel door and lock where busted off as well as damage to the security fence that surrounds the building. According to Mark Husak, President and Chief Engineer of Station 15, this was a malicious act of vandalism that has put our whole coverage area jeopardy in case of any type of emergency that may arise in East Beth Township and Deemston Borough.

Due to poor radio coverage coming from Washington County in the East Beth area the Fire Department set up this temporary system as they are waiting for a new radio tower that the county said they where going to put in across the river at SCI Fayette to ensure that its members receive the radio messages and emergency alerts. The system actually picked up the signal from Washington and rebroadcasted it from the Vestaburg site so that most of its members would be alerted to emergencies. With the system now down approximately half of its members have no way to know there is a call until they get a phone call or text message from another member thus causing delays in their response time to emergencies. We did have a fire siren that would of helped but unfortunately for some reason quit working a few months ago and the company just doesn’t have the funds at this time to have it taken down from tower in Fredericktown and sent out for repair. Where winging it right now until we see what our insurance company is going to do and hope they move quickly which they are not, so no one is put in jeopardy to long and we can get back to business as usual. Personally I feel this was done be a demented individual or individuals as although some of the equipment is missing most was destroyed on site and scattered all over the place. It definitely wasn’t because someone wanted to steal the equipment or the contents of the building to sell as things like copper grounding rods where left intact and never touched, radio’s and the power supplies where smashed off the concrete. I just can’t figure it out, this equipment was put into place to help save peoples lives and property and yes, possibly the life and property of the same person or persons that destroyed all the equipment.

Centerville Borough Police are conducting an investigation into the matter hoping to get fingerprints off the equipment and building. Anyone with any knowledge of the incident are requested to pass the information on to the Centerville Borough Police by calling 911.