MIFFLINTOWN — During a Tuesday meeting, Juniata County made another step closer toward a next-generation 911 system thanks to the county commissioners’ approval of a “Professional Services Agreement” with Mission Critical Partners, LLC.

The agreement is for consulting services related to a statewide NextGen 911 solution migration.

Emergency Service Director Allen Weaver said the next generation of 911 starts as a public safety internet connecting the state’s 911 centers on a monitory network to the Juniata 911 Center.

Weaver said the next-generation system would slightly change how the center receives 911 calls and allows for emergency call overflow. The system will route the call to the next closest center if a center is overwhelmed.

“It will change the way we do text to 911. Right now, it’s coming through a third-party agency. It’ll come directly to us. We’ll be able to talk directly to the caller.” Weaver said, “There’s video to 911 and a whole host of stuff that you will see we are capable of in the future.”

He explained that since the next-generation system will be an internet-based network, cell phone companies will have the ability to send a video 911 call to that network, making it available to the 911 centers.

Also, during the meeting, the Commissioners approved and adopted several documents related to the 2022 Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Competitive Funds application for the McAlisterville Joint Authority Spring Rehabilitation project.

The approved and adopted documents include Resolution No. 2022-1 “Fair Housing”; Resolution No. 2022-2 Section 504, “Appointing a Section 504 Compliance Officer”; Resolution No. 2022-3 “Language Access Coordinator”; “General Application Certifications”; “Disclosure Report”; and “Language Access Plan.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Carmina Taylor of Citizen University’s Civic Saturday fellow program joined the commissioners to give information on an event that will take place in Mifflintown this spring.

“I am a Civic Saturday fellow from Citizen University, and my charge is to go out this year and inspire people to tap into their citizenship and represent the best of our democracy,” Taylor said.

When she became a fellow, Taylor said she received the opportunity to reach out to communities in Pennsylvania to talk about the power of citizenship and democracy.

“What I’m hoping to gain is that we have people from your county and the region come and just talk about citizenship.” Taylor said, “There is nothing political about it; there’s nothing religious. It’s just all about tapping into the power of citizenship and exchanging dialog and perspective from people in and out of the region.”

Taylor also said there is a considerable opportunity for area students to share their art, gift of music, or any aspect of the program during the event.

The “Civic Saturday” event is scheduled for May 28 at Juniata County Library in Mifflintown. Those who wish to attend may find more information about the Civic Saturday Fellow program at citizenuniversity.us/programs/civic-saturday-fellowship/.

Also, during the meeting, commissioners:

Approved the tax exonerations for Susquehanna Township as per the material provided;

Approved CDBG-IDIS checks submitted by the Juniata County Planning and Community Development Department, No. 1279 $630 cb3 Solutions, LLC. Project Costs, No. 1280 $140,157.18 Sippel Development Co., Inc. Project Costs, No. 1281 $134,003.45 Sippel Development Co., Inc. Project Costs, No. 1282 $6.515 SEDA-COG Administration;

Approved the “Purchase of Service Agreement” between Juniata County Children and Youth Services, the Juniata County Probation Department, and The Summit School, Inc. The agreement shall be in force and effect from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, inclusive;

Approved payment of checks No. 63611 – No. 63657 for $120,121.84.