Sportsmen aid Carroll Twp. police

By ERIC SEIVERLING

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

Thanks to a donation from a local organization, the Carroll Township Police Department is now able to buy some much-needed new equipment.

On Friday, Monongahela’s Valley Inn Sportsmen’s Association gave Carroll Township police Chief Paul Brand a check for $4,000. The donation will help fund the police department’s purchase of automated external defibrillators for officers’ vehicles as well as new police Tasers.

Purchasing new AEDs has been an ongoing effort for the police department, and Brand has been working with the Mon Valley Revitalization Corporation for most of this year to secure funding for the machines.

Officers keep AEDs in their police vehicles to aid victims of cardiac arrest.

An AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias of a person’s heartbeat. Through defibrillation, the application of electricity which stops the arrhythmia, the heart re-establishes an effective rhythm.

The department’s current AEDs are 15 years old, and one AED unit costs $1,800 while one Taser costs approximately $1,000. Friday’s donation secures the purchase of at least two new AEDs.

“To our surprise, the Valley Inn Sportsmen’s Association told us they would give us the donation,” Brand said. “We’ve had a relationship with the sportsmen’s club going back many years. We helped them when they were getting their NRA certification as a club and we do our yearly firearms certifications at their range.”

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