CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The men and women in blue, who diligently serve and protect Chambersburg, are getting some needed back-up from community partners as they plan for a new training facility to better prepare their officers.
Monday evening, WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital officials presented a $25-thousand essential contribution to the Borough Council and Chief of Police Ron Camacho to support the Chambersburg Police Department's planned facility.
"We are extremely committed to increasing public safety in our community," said John Massimilla, chief operating officer, WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital. "We are pleased with the partnership we have forged with the Borough of Chambersburg, the Chief, the Mayor, and all of the officers who serve this community. We have found their professionalism, competency, and response to be tremendous when called upon and we wanted to be part of assisting the officers in their continued training."
Chief Ron Camacho graciously accepted the contribution, explaining the goal of the new facility is to increase technology and better train and prepare officers,
"For me it's all about operational efficiency and protecting each and every citizen who lives in our community to the best of our ability," he said. "We do our very best to work in tandem with WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital's excellent on-site security to address whatever situation that may arise to keep the public, patients and hospital employees safe so they can do their job helping and assisting others who need medical care. It's been a great relationship which we hope only continues to get better."
Mayor Walt Bietsch, a former Chambersburg Borough police officer and long-time resident of Chambersburg praised the ongoing partnership between hospital officials and the borough, explaining that when groups work together, it is the citizens who realize the benefit.
"We just received an incredible state grant for renovations to our police department with the help of Representative Rob Kauffman and Senator Doug Mastriano. It is very satisfying to see important business members of our community such as WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital to recognize the importance of our emergency services efforts and want to help facilitate our goals regarding increased training. Every time we can train as close to home as possible, we are able to have more officers not travelling to far-away places which assists in overall budgeting and staffing."
WellSpan-Summit Health is a non-profit network of hospitals and physician practices dedicated to building a healthier community.As Franklin County's leading healthcare provider, WellSpan-Summit Health offers family care, specialists, lab and imaging services, a fitness center, urgent care centers, and two award-winning hospitals.More information is available at www.SummitHealth.org and www.facebook.com/SummitHealth.