Editorial: Van Buren Twp. DDA buys AEDs for township hall

Former Van Buren Township Supervisor Helen Foster said she was at a meeting in another community where an official wasn’t feeling well and walked out of the meeting into the hall and collapsed from a heart attack. She said a story like that underlines the need for Automated Eternal Defibrillators (AEDs) in all public places.
VBT Supervisor Kevin McNamara said he had noticed the VBT hall had no AEDs. At Tuesday’s meeting of the VBT Downtown Development Authority the DDA unanimously approved an expenditure of $7,335 to Aventric Tech of Warren for five AEDs for the township hall, plus $200 for “other training expenses” – probably pizza.
Supervisor McNamara said he would like to require the 35 people or more at the township hall to attend an educational session on the use of AEDs and Public Safety Director Greg Laurain said food such as pizza might encourage employees to attend the training. Director Laurain made the presentation to the DDA and asked for its help. He said all police and fire vehicles carry AEDs, but he was surprised to find the township hall had none. By law the police lockup is required to have an AED, he said.
“These are things we probably should have had in the township hall years ago, but didn’t,” Laurain said. The important thing is that a need was discovered and immediately acted upon. Good going!