by Audrey Thomasson
LANCASTER—Citizens on Thursday, August 31, criticized Lancaster County’s Emergency Management Services program during a board of supervisors meeting.
One citizen accused chief of emergency services Terry McGregor of using one of the county’s two emergency response vehicles to commute daily to his home in Gloucester County.
While another citizen asked supervisors not to move forward on an Emergency Management Services (EMS) building without an overall five-year plan for the county.
During a public comments period on the meeting agenda, District 2 resident Charlie Costello said McGregor is taking the county’s $48,000 EMS command vehicle out of the county and out of service by using it to commute back and forth to Gloucester.
“That’s 17,000 miles in one year, 85,000 miles in five years,” Costello said. He calculated his figures on an estimated 34 miles each way, five days a week, noting the vehicle’s service life expectancy is about 100,000 miles.
Costello told supervisors that he worked for the U. S. General Accounting Office, and that milage could be considered a taxable benefit.
At $0.50 per mile over five years, “…that amounts to $40,000 in benefits that should be reported to the IRS,” he said. “I’ve been retired for 27 years. It’s time to catch up.”
