MALONE — Franklin County will discuss Thursday the possible merits of partnering with neighboring counties to fund a shared mobile-command center.
The suggestion is to retrofit a bookmobile no longer in use by the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System into a communications van to use for disasters in the tri-county area.
Clinton County is on board, Essex County wants more information, and Franklin County has informally voted the proposal down. But legislators will bring it back up again at 9:30 a.m. at Thursday’s meeting in the fourth-floor chambers of the County Courthouse in Malone. The public may attend.
Emergency-services directors in each county want the vehicle so they can speak with all responding agencies at the same time from one location, better coordinating efforts.
None of them could afford a new $500,000 central-command unit, but they feel they could buy the needed equipment to convert the bookmobile through grant funds from the U.S. Division of Homeland Security.
The estimated annual maintenance cost to each county is estimated at between $1,500 and $2,000.
The counties paid a total $206,381 toward the $297,000 bookmobile in 2006: Clinton County gave $86,680; Essex County, $51,595; Franklin County, $68,106; and the rest came from state funds and donations.
The bookmobile had about 100,000 miles on it when it was parked for the final time in September 2011.
Email Denise A. Raymo:
draymo@pressrepublican.com
