Carbon County officials said that a recent session for municipal elected officials and candidates allowed some insight into why emergency services personnel need to be properly trained.

The county held the course this past Saturday at the new Emergency Operations and Training Center on the Broad Mountain in Nesquehoning.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said there were 16 participants for the day, which was a lower turnout than he had hoped, but still said that overall, the day was a success.

Participants sat in on discussions with emergency responders, pulled fire hoses, watched two active police scenarios including an active shooter drill, and spoke with the men and women who serve their communities as first responders.

“I think almost all that I talked to or those who attended were really impressed by what we have here, what we’re doing here, the training that we’re putting on here,” Nothstein said, adding that he is hoping to hold another session for municipal officials and hopes more people would attend.

“I think the elected officials learned a lot,” he said.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich added that he spoke with several officials and said that he felt it was an “excellently, well done, well organized event” that was “highly informative.”

He said that the officials in his group that day understood “why we need to ensure both as a municipality and the county level, that we have the best trained, educated and incentivized first responders in the commonwealth.

“That program that ran this past weekend helped, I believe, solidify support for the training that takes place up there,” Lukasevich said.

Carbon County has been working to bring awareness to the new EOTC site it built for area first responders and law enforcement.

Since it opened, several trainings have been held at the location, both in the burn tower, as well as the police training building.

In addition to EOTC, some participants also took the opportunity to visit the neighboring Emergency Management Agency and 911 Communications Center to tour the call center and see how dispatchers operated.