NORRISTOWN PA – Montgomery County’s emergency radio system is in an official state of emergency, The Pottstown Patch online news service reported Thursday (Sept. 29, 2011).

As many chiefs of police from county municipalities crowded Wednesday (Sept. 28) into its Norristown meeting room, the county Board of Commissioners passed a resolution declaring an “actual emergency exists” in the county’s aging public safety telecommunications infrastructure.

Commissioners’ Chairman James Matthews described the declaration as a “band-aid” that gives the county “the ability to immediately respond to any shortcomings in the system.” Those shortcomings apparently are multiplying, The Patch reported.

• Read a story by author David Powell, titled “Solution For ‘Emergency’ Would Cost Taxpayers Over $50 Million” and published Thursday in The Patch, here.