2006 News
October 11, 2006
Bucks County Commissioners Laud "Excellent" State of County at Upper Bucks Chamber of Commerce
During a wide-ranging discussion of prominent county government issues, commissioners’ Chairman James F. Cawley, Esq. and Vice-Chairman Charles H. Martin delivered their annual state-of-the-county address to the Upper Bucks Chamber of Commerce this morning in Quakertown.
A captive audience inside the James Michener Branch Library’s Gov. Mark Schweiker meeting room heard Cawley trumpet the county’s upcoming pandemic flu immunization exercise before launching into a comprehensive explanation of the county’s new Danaher ELECTronic 1242 voting machines.
At the back of the room, BUCKS VOTES Project Manager Terry Savage and Voter Education Trainer Rick Gidlewski stood by a demonstration voting machine, eager to provide a post-meeting demonstration.
“It is an honor to go before ( Bucks County’s three) chambers of commerce and report on the state of the county,” Cawley said during his remarks. “A month ago, we appeared in front of the Lower Bucks Chamber of Commerce. At that time, I pronounced the state of the county was ‘very, very good.’ About three weeks later, we appeared in front of the Central Bucks Chamber, and we upgraded the state of the county to ‘great.’
“This morning, I can tell you that neither one of those characterizations is still appropriate. I can tell you, with great pride, that the state of the county is excellent.”
After detailing the county’s multiple efforts to recognize September’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security designation as “Emergency Preparedness Month,” Cawley spoke of the pandemic flu event, which will take place next month at three yet-to-be-specified locations.
“Normally, our seniors receive flu shots through our regional hospitals,” Cawley explained. “What we thought we would do instead this time is behave as if we were in the midst of a pandemic incident. If there was some sort of a bio-terrorism activity in Bucks County, we want to test our ability to quickly get out a vaccine.”
Cawley neatly transitioned his remarks to the BUCKS VOTES educational initiative, which continues to work “in partnership with the League of Women Voters and the Bucks County Chapter of the NAACP and others in trying to make sure as many people as we can know how the new machines work.”
As part of the enormous scope of the BUCKS VOTES initiative, Cawley added, “We have taped public service announcements that are running on Comcast cable (see the ON DEMAND Get Local platform), and we have been working very aggressively with the daily and weekly publications here in Bucks County.”
Emphasizing the incredible responsibility accompanying the commissioners’ March, 2006 decision to purchase Danaher machines to achieve compliance with the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act, Cawley concluded, “We have very high confidence that the integrity of the elections in Bucks County will remain pristine . We hope that you will arrive at the same conclusion. It is your vote. It is a treasured right and privilege. We want you to know how much we respect it, and how much we try to honor the trust that you put in us.”
When Cawley yielded the podium, Martin stepped to the microphone to discuss the county’s open-space preservation efforts, in particular those that have resulted from the 1997 referendum approving $59 million of land acquisition funding. He singled out the Sept. 20 preservation of the county’s 100 th farm – Kings Oaks in Wrightstown Twp. - as a barometer of progress.
“Since 1989, the county has spent $21.3 million (on farmland preservation), but we have leveraged another $51 million in state funds,” Martin said. “ Bucks County leads the commonwealth in the number of individual municipalities that have contributed their residents’ dollars. I think the farmland preservation program has been a wonderful success. We don’t have to tell you what the value of keeping our farms is in Bucks County.”
Martin also praised the 24-citizen Open Space Task Force II, which was empanelled during August to create a recommendation for a 2007 referendum. Emphasizing the vision and planning that goes with such a mandate, he pledged the commissioners’ continued dedication to Bucks County’s quality of life and protection of its precious natural resources.