“AAA anticipates that this summer we’ll see travel return very close to pre-pandemic levels, if not eclipsing pre-pandemic levels when it’s all said and done,” AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesperson Jana Tidwell said, especially when looking at national numbers.

The American Automobile Association estimates that nearly 500,000 in the five-county Philadelphia area, and 42.3 million nationally, will be traveling this upcoming weekend, and experts are saying that’s inching close to pre-pandemic levels.

In 2019, 503,584 Delaware Valley residents traveled over the Memorial Day weekend. County specific information was not available.

Nationally, Tidwell explained the 42.3 million is only 5% within levels recorded before 2020.

Regionally, the 500,000-traveler figure for the Delaware Valley is a 6% increase over last year’s travelers and will likely mark the fourth-busiest Memorial Day weekend in the Delaware Valley since AAA began the tallies in 2000.

Only 2019, 2018 and 2005 had more travelers.

Tidwell said with the proximity of the New Jersey shore, the Delaware beaches and the Pocono mountains to the Delaware Valley, that’s where many will go, but not all.

“Travel is rebounding to destinations where people were not comfortable,” she said of places like Orlando, Fla.; New York City and Las Vegas. “People are willing to venture out a little bit farther than the Jersey shore.”

Best, worst times for driving

With 90% of the 500,000 anticipated to be traveling by road, AAA offered some suggestions of when to leave:

The worst day and time to travel is from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, May 26.

For those looking to avoid traffic, the best times overall to travel are in the morning and after 6 p.m.

Times to avoid being on the road: Thursday, May 25, 3 to 6 p.m.; Friday, May 26; noon to 3 p.m.; Monday, May 29 and Tuesday, May 30, 4 to 6 p.m.

Times of lightest traffic: Thursday, May 25 before 1 p.m.; Friday, May 26 before noon; Monday, May 29 before 10 a.m.; and Tuesday, May 30, before 2 p.m. and after 6 p.m.

Minimal traffic is expected on Saturday, May 27 and Sunday, May 28.

Friendly skies

People are also traveling by plane this weekend for the summer’s unofficial start.

Some 42,000 Philadelphia-area residents are expected to take to the skies sometime this weekend, representing a 9% increase compared to the same time last year.

“The TSA has warned travelers that it expects summer travel numbers at checkpoints to be comfortably above pre-pandemic levels,” Tidwell said. “If the Memorial Day forecast numbers are an indicator for what we can expect for the summer, it could be a very busy season at the airports.”

She added that air travel has seen a surge since June when COVID restrictions, such has having to have a negative test prior to returning to the United States, were lifted.

“International air travel has just been soaring,” Tidwell said.

In the area marked by Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery and Bucks counties, 11.8% of the 4.2 million residents are forecast to travel this weekend.

Of those, AAA said 89% will travel by car a distance of 50 or more miles, 8.5% will be traveling by air and another 2.5% will use other modes of travel such as trains, buses or cruises.

Check under the hood

Tidwell recommended that those who plan to head out on the road to get their car maintained before they do.

“Now is the time to get your vehicle checked out, before you set off for a Memorial Day getaway or for the great American road trip,” she said. “No one wants to be left stranded on the side of the road. Catching up on routine maintenance, getting your oil and fluids checked and checking your battery and tires can go a long way in making sure your car is road ready.”

AAA also recommends putting together an emergency kit for those going on road trips.

It could include a fully charged cellphone and car charger, a first aid kit, a basic tool kit, a blanket, a rain jacket or poncho, a flashlight with extra fresh batteries, rags, paper towels or pre-moistened wipes, emergency warning devices such as road flares or reflectors, jumper cables and drinking water and snacks for everyone in the car, including pets.

On the one hand, the district attorney’s office was asking for jail time, up to two years for each of the 10 counts of reckless endangerment to which the former officers had pleaded guilty. The judge was noting the gravity of the situation and the impact it has had on the family down to a brother unable to even go to a playground where he and his sister, Fanta Bility, had played.

On the other, three defense attorneys argued that these men — Brian Devaney, Sean P. Dolan and Devon Smith — had already paid a price for their mistake with the loss of their careers and they had taken responsibility by pleading guilty in November, rather than drag the family through a lengthy trial.

In a packed, standing-room-only courtroom, Amoroso acknowledged the enormity of the case.

Looking to the Bility family, she added, “If what I did today could bring your daughter back, it would be a very easy decision. Nothing that I can do can make you whole.”

To Fanta’s siblings, the judge shared she has five brothers and sisters who mean so much to her.

“This is not your fault,” she said, pleading with them to never think that.

On Aug. 27, 2021, the Bility family had gone to the Academy Park High School football game to watch the oldest daughter, Mawatta, cheerlead for the first day of the season.

As crowds were leaving the stadium at the end of the game, a shooting occurred a block away and then-Sharon Hill police officers Devaney, Dolan and Smith mistakenly fired into the crowds thinking the firing was coming from someone there. Their shots injured four, including Fanta fatally.

Investigations connected the fatal shot to the officers’ service weapons, but not to any one specifically.

On Friday, Amoroso said the law required her to weigh several facts, including that Devaney, Dolan and Smith have no prior convictions, the multiple letters of support in their favor: 16 for Devaney, 14 for Dolan and 20 for Smith and the lack of ill intent in their actions.

“I do not believe they are a danger to the community,” the judge said, then she quoted Fanta’s uncle Siddiq Kamara, in saying, “This isn’t about blue lives or Black lives, this is about Fanta’s life and that her life did, in fact, matter.”

The judge noted the former officers’ accountability by pleading guilty in the case.

“It is my belief,” Amoroso said, “that when good people do hard stuff, we get the best we can get.”

She then sentenced the three former officers to five years of probation, with 11 months of that in house arrest.

‘How grief is’

During his address to the court, Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Doug Rhoads painted a beautiful, vivid picture of who Fanta was and a grim picture of the family’s experience over the past two years.

“There are good days and bad days,” he said. “That’s how grief is.”

Rhoads said the family has felt anger, fear and helplessness but “most of all, there are days of sadness, of missing young Fanta … Day to day there is a void that cannot be filled for them.”

He spoke of their survivors’ guilt, especially for Fanta’s sister.

“Why did this happen?” Rhoads said they ask themselves. “Why me? Did I have to be cheerleading that night? … Why did this happen to us?”

He then spoke of Fanta.

“She was a lovable, loved, happy-go-lucky girl,” Rhoads said. “She was sweet and kind, (with) kindness to a fault.”

He shared a story the family had told of how Fanta would often raid the family refrigerator to hand out snacks to her neighborhood friends.

Rhoads spoke of the special closeness Fanta had with her younger brother, Abu, and how the two would often play at the nearby playground.

“He no longer wants to go to the playground down the street because it reminds him of his sister,” Rhoads said of the boy.

He read words from the family, “We have experienced pain and suffering that has impacted every part of our lives.”

He spoke of how Tenneh Kromah, Fanta’s mom, held the dying girl in her arms after she had been shot.

“No one expects to go to a high school football game as a family and not all come home,” Rhoads said, noting that the family had fled war-torn Liberia with the hopes of a safe American dream. “The family wants to see Fanta’s memory, Fanta’s light out there in the world. They want Fanta’s life to have meant something.”

He then said Fanta’s father and uncle asked for incarceration while her mother, as consistent with her faith, “has forgiveness in her heart.”

‘Profoundly sorry’

The defense attorneys offered their own snapshots of the officers, all of whom had dozens of people attend the hearing in support.

Devaney, a 42-year-old married father of three and 1998 Interboro graduate with a Penn State undergraduate degree, grew up in a law enforcement family.

He started his career in 2003 as a Delaware County park police officer and a part-time officer in Sharon Hill. In 2013, he became the school resource officer at Academy Park High School.

Dolan, 25, had just graduated from the police academy that summer 2021. He had been a police officer for 10 days when the shooting occurred.

He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps in becoming a police officer after having graduated from Ridley High School and Penn State University.

Smith came from Jamaica and worked to build a life here. In 2015, he joined the Sharon Hill Police Department to be of service.

The former officers themselves addressed the court and Devaney and Smith spoke, often through tears, to the family directly.

Turning to face the Bility family in court, Devaney said he regretted not following his heart and talking to the family after the shooting.

“There really are no words to express how sorry I am for the loss of your baby girl Fanta,” he said dabbing tears with a tissue. “I am profoundly sorry for what happened. Your daughter and your family will remain in our prayers.”

He said he was excited to take job as school resource officer and had even volunteered to work that night — Aug. 27, 2021 — three days before he was to officially return to school because he wanted to see the kids.

“I missed the students,” he said, adding, “I’ve dedicated the last 20 years of my life to serving the people of Sharon Hill.”

Noting that it was a split-second decision with harrowing circumstances, Devaney said, “I have taken full responsibility for my actions that night.”

‘I came up short’

Dolan, who addressed the court but not the family, spoke very softly.

Saying he never intended to cause such harm, he said, “I came up short. For that, I am totally sorry.”

He, too, added, “I take responsibility for my actions that night and the effect it had on people.”

Smith spoke poignantly of a time he had met Fanta long before the shooting.

It was around 2 p.m. one day and he was investigating some complaint and the little girl was playing basketball with her brothers and sisters.

He recalled the little girl coming up to him and hugging him.

“Officer Devon, thank you so much for letting us play,” Smith said she told him.

After that, she told him she felt good when she saw him working.

Tearing up, Smith also faced the family and said, “I personally express my sincere condolences to you.”

As a father of three, he said, “I take full responsibility for my actions … I will constantly pray for your forgiveness and your healing. My goal that night was to keep you safe and I failed.”

Victim’s family

Although Fanta’s uncle, Abu Bility, said he was disappointed by the sentencing, others in the family said differently.  A familiar theme was the need to make certain no other family or child has to go through this again and some expressed a need for more police training and supervision.

Mawatta Bility, Fanta’s older sister who was cheerleading that night, spoke after the court proceeding.

“I think that the sentencing was fine,” she said. “I don’t think that the judge did anything that would jeopardize us. I feel like, in their defense, it wasn’t their fault and nobody can really look over the situation.”

She recalled the 8-year-old she knew as sister.

“My little sister, she was very caring, very kind, very outgoing,” Bility said. “She was very sweet, also … Although she’s not here today, she’s forever in our hearts and she’ll forever be by our side.”

She also expressed gratitude.

“I thank everybody for supporting us,” Mawatta Bility said. “I would like to thank the judge. I would also like to say I forgive the officers, on behalf of my family.”

‘Wonderful dignity’

When asked about the sentencing, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer referenced Amoroso’s earlier remarks that no one is ever completely happy with a sentence: that half think it was too lenient and the other half think it too harsh.

“She did what she did best to find the middle and the just sentence,” he said. “They are going to be held under house arrest for 11 months. That is a form of incarceration and they are going to be on probation for five years. The judge, in her wisdom, and she is the one who gets to make this decision, believes that was the just sentence in this case. It is not my duty or my right to question that. The judge made what I think is a just decision.”

He said that after the verdict the family reached out to the defendants and hugged them and offered words of forgiveness.

“I am breathless by the humanity, the courage and just the wonderful dignity of these people,” he said. “They have blessed our country and our county with their presence here.”

Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Maragaret Amoroso rendered the sentence of ex-officers Devon Smith, 34; Sean Patrick Dolan, 25; and Brian J. Devaney, 41, who pleaded guilty in November to 10 counts of reckless endangerment in Bility’s death. Manslaughter charges were dismissed under the plea.

They were facing up to two years for each charge, for a total of 20 years, although Bruce Castor, attorney for the Bility family in a civil case had said that was unlikely.

On Aug. 27, 2021, Fanta was leaving an Academy Park football game after she and her family had just watched her sister, Mawatta, cheerlead for the first day of the season. Shots were fired and Fanta and her sister, Mamasu, were hit.

In January 2022, Smith, Devaney and Dolan were fired after a grand jury presentment. They were fired by Sharon Hill Borough Council two days later.

The presentment found that the three had unloaded a collective 25 rounds into the direction of a crowd leaving the football game from its only open exit point on the 800 block of Coates Street.

They had been firing at a passing Chevrolet Impala, mistakenly thinking someone inside the car was firing at them.

The grand jury investigation found that the gunshots the three initially heard were from the 900 block of Coates Street, where 18-year-old Hasein Strand, of the 500 block of Felton Street in Collingdale, and Angelo “AJ” Ford, 16, of the first block of High Street in Sharon Hill were firing at each other.

Strand and Ford were originally charged with first degree murder in the case under the theory of “transferred intent,” but those charges were dropped.

Strand was sentenced to three to six years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm.

After escaping from the Aspire youth facility for almost over a year, Ford was recaptured in February. Ford faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses.

This device called the Aliya Pulsed Electrical Field technology is only offered at a few locations across the United States, including Crozer-Chester Medical Center, and it may change the face of cancer treatment.

“We’re on the cutting edge right now,” Whitlark said. “My prediction is this will be very commonplace. It appears to be promising and in one person, it was really great.”

The director of robotic surgery for Crozer Health explained how Aliya works.

He drew a diagram of a cancer cell on his whiteboard, explaining that the cancer DNA is in the cell’s nucleus.

“With cancer, cancer hides their mutation from our immune system,” he said. “Our immune system doesn’t recognize cancer so it allows it to grow.”

With the pulsed electrical field technology, a brief high-amplitude, non-thermal pulse of energy ruptures the nucleus of the cancer cell and releases the cancer DNA, allowing human antibodies to be created to rid the body of cancer.

It can be administered at the same time as a biopsy.

Whitlark explained.

“I take a long flexible needle. I put it through my bronchoscope and we do a biopsy and (the pathologists) come back and tell us that’s a cancer,” he said. “I take that biopsy needle and I put it back in and then I just put (the Aliya) in the other end of the biopsy needle and the electricity is generated down at a certain wavelength until we get this effect.

When we put that catheter in, we allow DNA and other proteins to leak out. Our immune system sees it and has a … response, so we make tons of antibodies,” he said.

In addition, since it’s nonthermal, it does not cause tissue damage, according to Whitlark.

“It leaves nerves and blood vessels, it leaves all of that intact,” he said. “It’s very safe.”

Whitlark said he knew the inventors of the Aliya because they had worked with the bronchoscope company he knew well.

“I started hearing about this well over a year ago because I knew all these guys,” he said. “When they got their FDA approval in June, they said, ‘We would like you to have one.’ Crozer administration was really great because they came and said, ‘We’ll help you do this.’ “

He said there are only eight in the entire United States, although not all of them are functional. He said Crozer Health did its first case on Oct. 14.

A success story

Whitlark shared the story of his 71-year-old male patient.

“The case was a gentleman who had a terrible sarcoma,” the surgeon said. “We diagnosed it and he had it in his thigh. It was in his heart. He had tons of nodules in his chest. They were metastatic.”

Whitlark said the treatment for sarcoma is limited.

“You can operate on them. They do get some chemotherapy, but they’re not effective,” he said. “We get this guy, the thing is growing in the wall of his heart so we can’t operate on him. He had numerous, numerous nodules in both lungs. You can’t take them out. And, he had it in his thigh.”

“We treated him and six weeks after we treated him with no other therapy, half of his nodules were gone and the mass on his heart is 60 percent smaller,” Whitlark said.

In fact, the 71-year-old has returned to his municipal job that’s physically intensive and involves getting in and out of sewers.

“He feels fine,” Whitlark said. “He’s back to work … You have to understand we just put the needle in this guy’s groin and his lung lesions got better and the heart lesions got better.”

A world of potential

The surgeon said he’s receiving calls from all over the country about this case.

“That is a remarkable case and that’s also a case that people are very interested in,” he said, describing it as the ‘abscopal effect.’

“What that is, is when treating cancer locally in one part of the body results in a response all over the body. Our case illustrated that great.”

He said he’s treated different cancers with the Aliya.

“We have treated lung cancers,” he said. “Tomorrow, I’m going to treat an esophageal cancer and another lung cancer. Yesterday, we treated another sarcoma. I have a different kind of chest cancer later this week.”

Because of its newness, researchers and developers are still trying to determine what conditions in humans result in the most successful cases.

Whitlark said right now, there are four main ways to treat cancer: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy.

“Those are the four pillars,” Whitlark said. “I think this could be the fifth. We don’t know that and it’s very early … but we are very, very excited and optimistic that we can help patients that we previously could not …  We can offer patients hope that had no hope before.”

Memorial events are planned for Saturday in Sharon Hill to commemorate the shooting death of the 8-year-old and a GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family as they continue to grapple with the aftermath of Fanta’s death.

Speaking in both English and her native tongue of Mandingo, Tenneh Kromah told the story of the death of her daughter, which has lead to the firing of three Sharon Hill police officers.

Devon Smith, 34, Sean P. Dolan, 25, and Brian J. Devaney, 41, have been charged with voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, as well as 10 counts each of reckless endangerment.

Their defense attorneys have moved to have the manslaughter charges dismissed.

“Aug. 27 was on a Friday,” Kromah said through the translating of her nephew, Siddiq Kamara. “She went to Jummah prayer because we’re Muslim. After Jummah, her big sister, a 16-year-old, said, ‘Hey, this is our first game of the season and I’m going to be cheerleading.’”

As they went to see Fanta’s sister, Mawatta, cheerlead, the family saw multiple police officers at the football stadium.

“Today, I feel really safe,” Kromah said when she saw them as the family paid the entrance fees and gathered together with friends and family. “They all wanted to watch the game. Everybody was having fun. Fanta was having fun.”

Kromah said that when the game ended, Fanta and the kids were walking ahead and playing.

“They’re walking ahead … going towards the car and just running around,” Kromah said. “At that time, (we) heard multiple shots. At the entrance, everybody … started running back into the stadium. It was chaos.”

Fanta also ran toward her mom.

“And then, all of a sudden, Fanta reached (me) and Fanta collapsed,” Kromah said. “She collapsed. (I) was like, ‘Fanta, what’s going on? What’s going on? Let’s get up. Let’s get up.’ “

“Then, (I) looked down and when (I) looked down, (I) saw blood,” Kromah said, adding that she lifted Fanta’s shirt. “That’s when (I) saw the bullet wound and then started screaming, ‘Somebody help me. Somebody help me. Somebody help me.’ “

Sharon Hill Officer James Scanlon has said that he saw Kromah screaming and noticed the girl was bleeding from a chest wound.

He attempted to put pressure on Fanta’s wound while another officer brought a car around. They rushed her to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, where she was pronounced dead at 9:25 p.m.

The controversy

Since then, the incident has come under intense scrutiny.

A grand jury was convened and two teenagers — 18-year-old Hasein Strand, of the 500 block of Felton Street in Collingdale, and Angelo “AJ” Ford, 16, of the first block of High Street in Sharon Hill — were initially charged with first-degree murder under the legal theory of “transferred intent” after the two exchanged gunfire in the 900 block of Coates Street, about a block away.

Murder charges were later withdrawn.

Strand was sentenced to three to six years in state prison in January after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm, and Ford continues to be sought by law enforcement after escaping from a juvenile detention facility this spring.

After a grand jury presentment, Smith, Dolan and Devaney were fired from the Sharon Hill Police Department and then charged with one count each of voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, as well as 10 counts each of reckless endangerment.

The three officers discharged 25 rounds toward a car that they believed was involved in a gun battle, riddling it with bullet holes, flattening two tires and smashing at least one window on the passenger side, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.

“The discharge of the police officers was directed toward the football stadium where spectators were exiting,” according to the grand jury presentment. “Several spectators exiting the stadium were struck by gunfire.”

Fanta and her older sister, Mamasu, were among them.

The officers were held for court on all charges following a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Robert Burke in March and formally arraigned later that same month.

Last month, their attorneys moved to have the case dismissed.

Sharon Hill borough officials hired former Philadelphia District Attorney Kelley Hodge and her firm, Fox-Rothschild LLP, to conduct an independent investigation surrounding the borough police policies and procedures.

The report was completed in June and a heavily redacted version of it was released in July as NAACP leaders and others call for release of the full report through press conferences and protests.

‘She loved everybody’

In the middle of all of this is the memory of an 8-year-old girl with sparkling eyes and a friendly smile, a person her family does not want lost in the controversial aftermath or forgotten.

“Fanta was a very outgoing young girl,” Kromah said. “She loved everybody … she was very giving.”

The 8-year-old loved fashion and dressing up, as well as dancing to make videos on TikTok.

“She used to take (my) phone every day and be on TikTok,” Kromah said.

Her mom also recalled how she played with her brother, Abu, who recently turned 8-years-old.

“She loved to play outside with her little brother,” Kromah said. “They always used to play outside together every single day.”

The second grader, who received A’s and B’s, enjoyed art most of all and was known for her friendliness and generosity.

Fanta would give her clothes and her shoes to her friends, her mother explained, adding that she’d also share food.

“She would grab the snacks and the juices that (I) kept in (my) house and take to the kids outside,” Kromah said.

Memorial service

Remembering Fanta will be at the center of events taking place Saturday, the year anniversary of her death.

At noon, some of Fanta’s friends and family and community leaders will speak at a Gathering to Remember Fanta at Sharon Hill Memorial Park, 1201 Chester Pike, Sharon Hill.

At 1:15 p.m., there will be a walk down Chester Pike to Kenny Avenue to Coates Street.

“We’re not going to go inside the football field intentionally,” family representative Dawn Chavous said. “The family felt it would be too difficult to go into it.”

Chavous said the events will be an opportunity to reflect on what took place and to remember the impact Fanta had and continues to have on those impacted by the events of Aug. 27, 2021.

“We want people to come out,” Chavous said. “This event is open to anyone and everyone who cares about her, cared about the story, cared about what happened or was impacted by what happened because Fanta lost her life but everyone who was there that evening was traumatized in some way by what took place.”

She noted that three other people, including Mamasu, were injured that evening.

“Our goal is to raise $60,000,” Chavous said through the event and the GoFundMe page. “We’re hoping that will at least give (Kromah) some relief, some support because it’s a lot of pressure.”

After the shooting, Kromah left her certified nursing assistant job where she took care of the elderly to care for her surviving children and to seek justice for Fanta.

“At the end of this, you still have a family who’s still dealing with the PTSD and the shock of what took place last year,” Chavous said. “In all reality, Fanta should still be here.”

Chavous explained that this is one way people can help the family.

“We’re hoping that people can approach this issue with a little more empathy and understanding of the family and remembering if they want to help, there are ways they can do that, that don’t require any type of controversy,” she said.

‘Why us?’

In the meantime, the family shared how they persevere.

Kamara said the family appreciates the news media and their focus on Fanta and the case.

“In the beginning, it was very difficult because we needed some space,” Fanta’s cousin and Kromah’s nephew said. “There was so much we needed to deal with at that time. We didn’t even know where to start.”

He explained that in 2004 he and Kromah came to the United States after fleeing civil wars in Liberia that lasted from 1989 to 2003 and left more than 250,000 dead.

He said Kromah wanted a better life for her children.

“We didn’t do nothing,” Kamara said. “They were at the right place. They respect the law. It’s like, ‘Why us? Why did this have to happen to us?’ We just want to make sure whatever happened that day, we get the proper justice as an immigrant.”

So, they rely on their faith.

“We’re Muslim,” Kamara said. “Our religion, we believe that everything happens for a reason. We believe that the way that Fanta went, that was what God wanted to happen.

“We pray for her all the time,” he said.

How to help

The Family’s GoFundMe page: https://bit.ly/FantaBilityFund

Registered nurses are invited to the Springfield Country Club at 400 West Sproul Road in Springfield Sept. 7, 6-8:30 p.m., for free food and drinks to meet with Crozer’s recruitment team. There will also be a raffle for Apple earbuds.

But the main headliner of the evening will be the nursing opportunities at Crozer Health – along with the $15,000 sign-on bonus and other benefits for employees.

“We’re trying to take the position that we may have to offer a little bit more, Charles Johnson, Crozer Health Vice President of Human Resources, said. “So, this $15,000 would be spread out – $5,000 over six-month intervals.”

Johnson explained the need for Crozer Health to do extra in its recruitment.

“Even with having quite a bit of incentives, it still continues to be a struggle — the war on talent within this industry,” he said, adding, “Here’s the other thing that we’re seeing — It’s not only in health care but it’s in any job whether it’s the bus drivers for the schools or even the McDonald’s or any industry that you’re looking at right now, it has become extremely difficult.”

In a challenging labor market, the system has identified licensed registered nurses from the Philippines or Canada as candidates but there can be a hesitancy in coming to Pennsylvania, compared with warmer climates like that of California.

So, he said Crozer Health is trying to do different things to attract people.

“We feel like once we get them here, there’s a good chance that they would want to stay,” Johnson said. “This happy hour that we’re looking to do on Sept. 7, (it’s) just another concept of how we go about how we engage with the community, engage with people who are currently in the nursing field in other places. Come and get to know us as a system, as people.”

He said those in the nursing field are invited to come and meet some of Crozer Health’s executive leaders in the nursing area to know them as people and learn about the opportunities in the system.

Crozer Health’s Chief Nurse Executive Christine Mendez shared some of the benefits the system has to recruit and retain employees.

“We’ve built nurse residency programs,” she said, explaining that nurses can come into the system and get trained in levels of care for the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Units and others to the competency they can start in those units.

Johnson said many nurses young in their career come to Crozer because they know there is a great deal of training and exposure and experience they can get in this system.

Mendez also said Crozer partners with Widener University to get input into what nurses who are graduating want today.

One thing that arose from that was assistance in paying off college loans so Crozer built a loan forgiveness program in which they pay up to $50,000 over five years for registered nurses.

Johnson said it was so popular with existing staff and potential new hires that it was expanded into other difficult-to-hire areas such as lab service technicians, medical technologists, licensed practical nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, social workers, surgical technicians, paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

He also spoke of the $10,000 employee referral program that allows employees to bring family members and friends into the organization.

Mendez said they also work to provide as much flexible staffing as they can and also reimburse for continuing education credits and certifications.

“If you look at Crozer Health, we have a spectrum of services, where everyone doesn’t,” she said from a burn unit to shock trauma to behavioral health and more. “We really have … all types of service lines that are available when it comes to health care so really they could go into anything.”

She said the system sees a lot of people who grew up in the Delaware County area want to come to Crozer Health – including herself. She didn’t want to work in Philadelphia because of the city wage and parking, both of which are not issues at Crozer Health.

As far as quality, Mendez said, “We are on top of it. We definitely try to do everything we can to provide the best outcomes for our patients. We’re dedicated to ensuring the best quality outcomes for any patient that comes into our facilities.”

Johnson said Mendez herself is a prime example of what it means to work in a community hospital.

“To go from a place where she started out being in dietary to now become the president of a hospital – that’s part of our employee value proposition that we hope to be able to offer here,” he said.

Both Mendez and Johnson recognize the challenges that may present with the system’s reduction, consolidation and elimination of services since the beginning of the year.

“We are committed to be here for the community,” Mendez said. “We may look different … I know that we are committed to be here. We may look different but we will be here.”

Johnson noted the need for nurses past and present.

“We have the openings right now,” he said. “We had openings before the pandemic. We have just that many more today. We’ll continue to provide quality services … We’re open. We’re open for business.”

“We’re here to stay,” Mendez added.

Johnson said Crozer Health has a variety of personnel needs and invited nurses to come out to see for themselves on Sept. 7.

“We’ve got plenty of opportunities for people who are new in their career and want to start in a great place,” he said. “We’re here for people who are looking for a change … with existing professionals who are out there and this opportunity on Sept. 7 would just give you an opportunity to come to meet and greet some of our executive leaders within the nursing area, get to meet them as people and let them tell you why you would want to come and be a part of this great team.”

Sixteen pages in total were blacked out as were portions of 12 other pages in the 54-page report. The 17 recommendations that the report presented to Sharon Hill Borough Council as a result of its findings and the assessment of the borough police department’s training and policies were also redacted.

In September, Sharon Hill Borough Council unanimously hired Kelley Hodge and her firm, Fox-Rothschild LLP, to conduct an independent investigation surrounding the policies and procedures surrounding the Aug. 21 shooting in which 8-year-old Fanta Bility was shot and killed as she and her family left an Academy Park High School football game. Bility’s sister and two other citizens were also shot and injured.

Hodge, a former Philadelphia District Attorney who has been nominated to be a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and her team completed the report in June.

The Bility family and at least one community organization criticized the release of the redacted report, calling on all of it to be made public.

Bruce L. Castor Jr., the attorney representing the family, released the following statement after the report was released.

“The undated and redacted report made public today by Sharon Hill Borough is an insult to the memory of Fanta and completely unacceptable in any society that values the truth and the Rule of Law,” it read. “The heavily edited report raises more questions in the minds of the family and the public than it answers.

“Fanta’s legal counsel and family members will have more to say on the report after taking several days to study it,” the family statement continued. “That Sharon Hill Borough officials chose to hide from the public those portions detrimental to itself and the conduct of its officials in the training and supervision of its police department, speaks loudly to Sharon Hill’s knowledge of its own guilt in connection with Fanta’s death.

“The government of Sharon Hill exists to protect and serve the public, but its officials think it exists to protect serve them. The redactions after having had the report for weeks (or months) is a shameful and outrageous demonstration that Sharon Hill Borough’s officials are not interested in providing the truth to the public as a beginning point to heal the community. Sharon Hill’s only interest is in delay.”

Castor asked what is beneath the blacked-out portions of the report.

“What is contained behind those black bars in the report?” the statement read. “What else could there be apart from a professional assessment of the ineptitude of the training, policies, procedures and supervision given to the Sharon Hill Police Department in the use of deadly force?”

The statement concluded that more will be learned.

“The world will eventually learn how Sharon Hill Borough officials failed to make certain its police trained under realistic scenarios and understood fully when deadly force is permitted under the law and when it is not,” the family statement concluded. “That, and so much more, is what Sharon Hill Borough officials are hiding now from Fanta’s family and from the community at large. It is time for the community to have its voice heard. It is time to demand the truth about the police killing Fanta.”

Others also criticized the report released to the public Friday.

“The Bility family and the public had to wait a month and a half for this report, but the actions of the borough demonstrates nothing but faulty behavior,” said Dyamond Gibbs, president of social activist group UDTJ (Understanding, Devotion, Take action, Justice).

“There is no way to deny that Sharon Hill Borough is at fault and there is a reason that this information is no longer included,” she continued. “Rules have been broken and policies and procedures have been violated. There should not be a cover-up for this. Little to no answers came out of this report because of Sharon Hill’s lack of accountability and responsibility to provide transparency to the public, and more importantly the Bility family.

“Taxpayers of Sharon Hill paid for this report, and therefore the public should have access to the original. We will be taking action to demand responsibility, accountability, and access to the original report. This is unacceptable!”

Borough officials said the goal of the report is to “provide measurable information that can guide future planning, training, and resource allocation with the ultimate goal to ensure that the events of August 27, 2021, do not happen again.”

Council also identified that it wanted to ensure that going forward, the Sharon Hill Police Department adopted and implemented the best practices available regarding the use of force and any other relevant policies and procedures, including community policing.

These investigators were asked to identify deficiencies that existed in police policy, training or the execution, which resulted in injury or death to citizens based on an officer’s use of force.

Entitled “Investigation of the Sharon Hill Police Department Polices and Procedures Following the Academy Park High School Shooting on August 27, 2021,” the 54-page document outlined the investigation, which looked at the use-of-force policies in effect at the time of the shooting and use of force trainings implemented at the time of the shooting. It also looked at officer training of responsiveness to critical incidents, such as an active shooter.

The analysis compared Sharon Hill Police Department’s use of force policies with the policies of the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Springfield, Norristown and Lower Merion police departments. It evaluated a 422-page document titled “Sharon Hill Police Department Policies and Procedures,” produced by Sharon Hill Police Chief Richard Herron.

The investigators also gathered national and state law enforcement resource agency reports from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission.

They also interviewed Sharon Hill borough police officers. The report said not all borough police officers were able to participate in this investigation, due to to their participation in the grand jury investigation on the matter.

One of the findings was that the Sharon Hill Police Department does not reflect the diversity of the community it serves. The Hodge report noted that 71.1% of Sharon Hill’s 5,712 residents are Black or African American; 21.2% are white; 2.1% are Asian; and a little over 5% are another race or of mixed races.

The borough police department is comprised of all male officers who are predominantly white, according to the report.

On Aug. 27, there were 19 active officers. As of June 6, according to the Hodge report, there are 13 active officers.

Regarding the use of force, the Hodge Report referred to the Sharon Hill Police Department Policy Manual, which states, “A Police Officer will never employ unnecessary force or violence and will use such force in the discharge of their duty as is reasonable in all circumstances. The use of force should be used only with the greatest restraint and only after discussion, negotiation and persuasion have been found to be inappropriate or ineffective. While the use of force is occasionally unavoidable, every Police Offices (sic) will refrain from the unnecessary infliction of pain or suffering and will never engage in cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment of any person.”

The report also looked at 60 of the directives in the policy manual.

One that the investigators highlighted stated that “Officer should not discharge any firearm at or from a moving vehicle, except as the ultimate measure of self-defense or defense of another, when the suspect is using deadly force by means other than the vehicle.”

The directive allowing for deadly force says it can be used by police officers “if it is necessary to prevent the arrest from being defeated by resistance or escape and … (t)he person to be arrested has committed or attempted a forcible felony, or is attempting to escape and possesses a deadly weapon, or otherwise indicates that he will endanger human life or inflict serious bodily injury unless arrested without delay.”

Among the things to be considered by a borough police officer when using deadly force, according to the report, is the accuracy of his information and the danger to innocent bystanders.

“Officers are prohibited from discharging firearms when it appears likely that an innocent person may be injured,” the report quoted a Sharon Hill police policy directive.

Regarding training, Sharon Hill police officers must successfully complete the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officer Basic Training Program, which includes two modules — “Firearms” and “Laws and Criminal Procedures” — on the use of deadly force. In these, cadets learn legal issues with use of force, how to de-escalate situations and participate in a stress shooting course.

In addition, certified police officers must qualify with their duty weapon each year.

The incident from which this report stemmed began at the end of a football game last year.

On Aug. 21, as the crowd was exiting an Academy Park High School football game, 18-year-old Hasein Strand of the 500 block of Felton Street in Collingdale and Angelo “AJ” Ford, 16, of the first block of High Street in Sharon Hill got into a verbal dispute and Ford allegedly flashed a gun at Strand.

Ford then allegedly opened fire in the area of the 900 block of Coates Street, shooting at Strand five times and Strand allegedly returned fire twice. Officials have said Ford and Strand are members of rival gangs.

Both Strand and Ford were initially charged with first-degree murder under the legal theory of “transferred intent.” Those charges have been withdrawn.

Strand pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm and was sentenced to three to six years in prison. Ford escaped from a juvenile placement facility in February and continues to be sought by law enforcement.

According to the Hodge report and preliminary findings of the Delaware County District Attorney, the gunfire in the area of 900 block of Coates Street also included a shot in the direction of three Sharon Hill police officers monitoring the crowd exiting the football stadium and also struck and injured a civilian.

In response, the officers discharged 25 rounds of their service weapons and one of those shots, according to the District Attorney, was the one that killed Fanta.

The Hodge report also noted that Sharon Hill police officers Vincent Procopio and John Scanlan, immediately attended to Fanta Bility after she was shot and transported her in a patrol vehicle to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:25 p.m.

This past week, defense attorneys for the three former Sharon Hill police officers — Devon Smith, 34, Sean Patrick Dolan, 25 and Brian James Devaney, 41 — sought to have the manslaughter charges dismissed for their clients.

Smith, Dolan ad Devaney are each charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, as well as 10 counts of each of reckless endangerment.

All three were firing the same type of weapon and the fragment recovered from the fatal shot was unable to be positively matched to any specific officer, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.

Common Pleas Court Judge Margaret Amoroso has scheduled another hearing in September on the dismissal request, but may issue a ruling earlier.

In the report, it states that borough officials see this as a start.

“For Borough Council,” the report stated, “this Investigation is not the end, but the beginning of its ongoing effort to ensure the (Sharon Hill Police Department) is employing the best practices to protect the community.”

State Sens. John Kane, D-9, of Birmingham, Tim Kearney, D-26, of Swarthmore and Anthony Williams, D-8, of Philadelphia and Delaware counties, voted in favor of the measure. State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, D-17, of King of Prussia, whose district includes Radnor and Haverford, opposed it.

The state House had approved the measure by a 168-32 vote in November.

There, state Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168, of Middletown, was the prime sponsor of HB 773, also known as Deana’s Law. The number has remained the same, representing the birth month and year of Deana DeRosa Eckman.

“I am very gratified the Senate has passed this legislation in Deana’s memory,” state Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168, of Middletown, said. “I look forward to joining Rich and Roseann DeRosa and others who have advocated for this important measure to discuss the law once the governor has signed the measure.”

Deana’s parents, Rich and Roseann DeRosa, are reserving their comments until the governor signs the bill.

Deana was 45-years-old on Feb. 16, 2019 when she was riding in a 2019 Subaru WRX driven by her husband, Chris, on their way home from a family gathering. At 9:40 p.m., Deana was pronounced dead at the scene of a two-vehicle crash at Market Street and the CRX railroad tracks in Upper Chichester. Both Deana and Chris needed to be extricated from the vehicle.

Police said the Subaru was hit head-on by a Ram 2500 pickup truck that had crossed the double lines. The couple were not far from their Brookhaven home.

In November, David Strowhouer, a six-time DUI offender, was resentenced to 24 to 51 years in prison. He had appealed and the state Superior Court upheld the conviction but remanded the case for resentencing.

Strowhouer, 32, of the 2400 block of Woodside Lane in Newtown Square section of Willistown Township, was originally sentenced in November 2019 to 25½ to 50 years after pleading guilty to murder in the third degree, two counts of aggravated assault, accidents involving death or injury, driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license for the Feb. 16 crash on Route 452 in Upper Chichester.

At the time of the crash, authorities said Strowhouer’s blood-alcohol level was 0.199 at the time and he had traces of cocaine, diazepam and marijuana in his system.

Online court records indicate Strowhouer had five prior DUIs on his record since 2010 and was on probation for a previous offense at the time of the crash. He was also driving with a suspended license on Feb. 16, 2019.

Deana’s Law would require consecutive sentencing, instead of concurrent, for fourth DUIs and above. It would also increase penalties for drivers with multiple DUI convictions involving high blood alcohol content levels.

The DeRosa family worked with former state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, to pass a bill after her death. It included continuous monitoring devices, similar to devices worn by those sentenced to home monitoring. The most recent version does not include this provision.

The governor has 10 days to sign the bill for it to become Pennsylvania law.

“I think it’s real important that we came to Delaware County today because the governor is a very big proponent of ensuring that we provide veterans with the benefits and services that they so rightly deserve,” Berrier said. “They served for our country. Let us serve for them.”

Berrier visited the Crosby Street center Wednesday during its “Hire A Hero” veterans job fair in which 14 employers, including UPS, Crozer Health and Piedmont Airlines.

Of the 26,000 veterans recorded in U.S. Census records as living in Delaware County, there are nearly 7,800 veterans being reached in some way by CareerLink services, according to Brandon Clark, the Veterans Program Career Coach at the Chester CareerLink.

There are 800,000 veterans in Pennsylvania overall — making it the fourth largest state based on the veteran population.

As a way to reach this demographic, Gov. Tom Wolf directed $800,000 in March to four workforce development initiatives as part of the Veterans Employment Program. Two of those programs are in Delaware County.

One, the Veterans Career Acceleration Program, allocated $200,000 so that EDSI Inc. would create a Career Acceleration Program for 30 veterans in IT, healthcare, construction/skilled trades and customer service. It also includes career coaching for another 10 veterans.

With NuPaths for Veterans, $199,998 was distributed to NuPath Inc. to train 24 veterans through a virtual learning platform in Delaware, Beaver and Fayette counties for entry-level jobs in network technician and IT security analyst roles.

Fayette County also received another $193,034 to supplement existing programs and Lackawanna County received $192,332 to overcome barriers through one-on-one interaction by outreach, case management and employment acquisition assistance.

“Delaware County was really lucky that we got extra funding for our veterans,” Kate McGeever, director of the Delaware County Workforce Development Board, said.

The secretary spoke about why these counties received this funding.

“It shows that they have a really strong contingent here and also that there is a lot of movement in employing veterans within this specific county,” Berrier said.

She spoke about the unique characteristics veterans have.

“Obviously, when you enroll in the military, you are trained a specific skill set, a specific regiment,” the secretary said. “For us, it’s important for us to try to translate those skills into meaningful employment and also to provide skills and training that connect them with employers within their local community that have that need.”

Clark himself served in the U.S. Army for eight years starting as an 11 Bravo infantryman and ending as a sergeant E5.

“I think one thing is helping veterans find purpose again,” he said. “When I got out, I was lost. I went back to school. I always kept on saying, ‘I need a plan, a purpose, a direction.’ … As a squad leader, my job was to take care of my soldiers.”

That’s when he found out about the veteran program career coaching, which gave him purpose by coaching other veterans towards finding better positions.

“What I say to them is, ‘Find that job that will give you that purpose, direction and motivation,’” Clark said.

Of the job fair, he said it sends a message to vets that they do matter and there are employers looking for them.

Berrier said COVID-19 has resulted in an environment where businesses are hiring.

“You can’t walk anywhere without a ‘Help Wanted’ sign,” she said. “We’re at a low unemployment rate and there’s some labor/market friction there. So, making sure we make those right connections and we help fill those positions for employers so that we can keep economic stability within this state is vitally important.”

Veterans can reach Clark for employment services at 610-470-2246, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or through bclark@EDSISolutions.com. Any job seeker or employer in Delaware County can call the main PA CareerLink at 610-447-3350.

Over the coming weeks, we will be taking a look at the way forward and how change has transformed our communities in every way — schools, health care, politics, policing, entertainment, religion, nonprofits and business.

Stories by a team of local reporters will be published periodically over the next several weeks and online at delcotimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

As the new Delaware County Health Department readies to launch, it is adopting the next generation philosophy of public health as well as preparing for the next pandemic the county may face.

“Like everyone in this county, many of us at one time or another were touched by the pandemic either through loss or through illness,” Rosemarie Halt, chair of Delaware County’s Board of Health, said at a two-year COVID memorial early in March. “Together, we fought with the limited tools that we had — first with testing, then with vaccines. So much of what we did was based on who we were serving — our fellow neighbors and friends and relatives … The battle is not over and we still need to work hard to ensure that we protect the health and safety of our community.”

A years-long advocate for establishing a county health department, Halt expressed her hope that by now having it in place the goal of protecting the community would be easier.

Creation of the Delaware County Health Department began in early 2020, only a few weeks before COVID presented itself here as Pennsylvania’s first case. With 576,000 residents, Delaware County was the largest county in the United States without its own health department.

The 60-plus employee, $10-million department with multiple locations was given final Act 315 approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to begin operations April 2.

“The ultimate goal of the public health department is to … prevent injury, illness, disease and premature death,” Melissa Lyon, director of the Delaware County Health Department, explained, adding that the health care system intervenes when someone has been injured or has gotten sick. “Public health is everything before that.”

And, it’s pervasive, down to seat belts and speed limits, air bags and anti-lock brakes.

“We know that if people drive 55, if you’re in an accident, you’re less likely to die,” Lyon said. “That’s why we have a speed limits”

As Delaware County delves formally into public health, officials have decided to adopt the Public Health 3.0 model attributed to Dr. Karen DeSalvo, former Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Public Health 1.0 focuses on sanitation and hygiene, much of which can be handled by measures like chlorinating water supplies and managing waste removal. Public Health 2.0 includes the treatment, mitigation and prevention of infectious and communicable diseases and the distribution of vaccines.

In Public Health 3.0, the county health department becomes the chief health strategist for the county in addressing priorities by determining issues arising from primary and secondary sources of data and social determinants of health.

Lyon explained that the focus becomes, “How do we help the county be strategic in their approach to creating a healthy, safe, vibrant, thriving community?”

Many issues in this model are the chronic diseases, ones that are multi-level and which the systemic root cause has to be solved by the larger community, creating a critical need for the health department to have partnerships with community and non-traditional partners.

Collecting data and presenting it in a meaningful way is foundational for Public Health 3.0.

Lyon explained that comes from primary data, which is word on the streets, focus deserts, etc. and secondary data, such as infant mortality — data that is recorded by someone who puts it into a system and then is retrieved by health department staff.

“Through that, we look at trends,” she said. “Our job is to watch trending — what’s happening.”

COVID flashed a spotlight on data collection.

“We’ve never been designed to publicly share that data, which is what happened in COVID,” Lyon said. “Everyone wanted to know the data – how are you making your decisions, why are these decisions being made. It’s interesting. Nobody really cares about why I am making decisions about syphilis. Nobody really cares about decisions I’m making about gonorrhea.”

However, each of the viruses are treated with the same approach – watching trends and then figuring out how to prevent the disease and its spread.

“There’s nothing unique about how we collect data, watch for trends, analyze it and take action,” Lyon said. “COVID sort of shook that up because everyone’s like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ ‘What’s the data?’ because it impacted everybody. It really put people in hardships.”

As a result, data dashboards were created for public consumption.

“In public health, we’ve known in order to have communities value what we do, they need to understand how we do our work,” Lyon said. “So (Public Health) 3.0 has been designed  — we’ve been working on this idea long before COVID — how do we collect the data, how do we display it to the consumer in a way that makes sense and is meaningful to the consumer.”

The barrier previously had been the lack of resources to invest in these data systems as Lyon explained that the last time a good investment was made in public health at the national level was in the late 1980s.

Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pennsylvania Department of Health are changing their strategies to be more transparent to the public as Delaware County is looking at best practices to determine what will work best here as well.

“I honestly I believe that these are really great leaps forward for public health,” Lyon said. “They are. They are. They might not seem like it to the community but they are to us.”

This data can include incidence rates, such as the number of new cases per 100,000; prevalence, the total number of cases in a period of time; and life years lost.

Lyon gave the example of Black men who have lost their lives due to law enforcement brutality or shootings.

“If you look at the total number, in general, it’s not going to gain a lot of traction,” she said. “If we expected the 20-year-old to live to 65, we have now lost 45 years of this person’s life.”

When multipliers are added, she said, “That now puts you at a place that now this is an issue. We have a premature death problem due to something that is happening in our community.”

In the Public Health 3.0 model, community partners also play a vital role.

In one capacity, hospitals complete community health needs assessments and there is a regional one as well, Lyon said.

By using that data, a community health improvement plan is created.

“It’s a road map and we build on them basically year after year,” the health director said. “It’s like a strategic plan.”

While Delaware County is unique in building a county health department around this model, Lyon explained other health departments are very aware of it.

“They’re retrofitting it,” she said. “They’re adopting the Public Health 3.0 strategies, models, framework. The beauty of what’s happening here in Delaware County is that we can build it within that lens and not have to retrofit our strategy.”

For example, even though Berks County does not have its own county health department, the commissioners there have approved a study to identify gaps in the health care system by gathering information such as socioeconomic factors to health indicators to emergency preparedness, identifying where the needs are and creating recommendations to address those.

They specifically struck language that would allow the data to be used to determine if a county health department is needed from the requests for proposal for the study.

An additional component of Public Health 3.0 is the national accreditation.

“Another thing about Public Health 3.0 that we will absolutely be using here in Delaware County as not only our framework, but it will become our philosophy, it will be our culture – we will be doing the accreditation work,” Lyon said. “It’s really transformative in how a public health department functions because it builds in what we call performance management.”

She explained that the department measures its performance and if that is not up to the level they expect, then they look at the reasons behind that and adjust in a process called continuous quality improvement.

“For a long time, public health — this is no fault of anyone — we did a lot of measuring of outputs: how many clinics did we hold, how many people did we serve, but we weren’t necessarily measuring as intentionally as we should the outcomes,” Lyon said.

In addition to the foundational parts such as the community health needs assessment and the community health improvement plan, the department picks outcomes, such as a 2 percent decrease in low birth weights in babies, to measure and report in the accreditation process.

“It really does philosophically change the way public health department’s function,” Lyon said. “We have said that we are going to ultimately be responsible for this outcome so that means that everything we do drive us to that outcome.”

A focus on social determinants of health is also an element of this health model to determine on which populations are suffering more from a particular illness and why and where the disparities are.

Lyon gave the example of how single moms of lower incomes tend to be more likely to smoke.

“You take single moms of a higher income and you compare them, just income alone, they’re less likely to smoke,” she said. “We want to dig down. What’s causing this? Sometimes from community to community, it’s the same reasons, but not always, not always. It depends.”

Another example she gave was birth outcomes for Black women.

“Black women have poorer birth outcomes, regardless of their education and their income and it’s clearly racism,” Lyon said. “It’s clearly the color of their skin. If we have populations that have poor health outcomes for no other reason than the color of their skin, then we have a problem …. The health equity lens is to say, ‘OK, where are we seeing disproportionate outcomes and why and then, how do we equitably address it?’ We’ll be setting up our health department to be thinking in that strategic way.”

Lyon said the newly formed health department is also preparing for the next pandemic.

“We are really putting together a department that should be able to be better prepared or at the ready for the next pandemic,” she said. “Now, that doesn’t just happen internally. That requires community commitment.”

In a public health event of magnitude, after-action reports are compiled.

“You basically write out what worked, what didn’t work, what you don’t ever want to do again, what you want to replicate,” Lyon said, adding that the after-action report builds out your improvement plan that explores different angles such as operational effectiveness and populations served and underserved.

“We really take a hard look – did we leave any population behind?” Lyon said. “If so, why and we shall never do that again. That’s how we’re going to be wired and planning and moving forward.”

Different communities approach when to complete after-action reports differently.

Lyon was the county health department director in Erie, Pa., prior to coming to Delaware County. There, they had started an after-action report.

“We realized this thing was going to go on and we’re like, ‘You know what? We need a snapshot right now,’” she said, adding that others will be completed in later COVID phases.

In Delaware County, there has already been some work done around an after-action report as all the documentation has been captured, it just needs to be pulled together, according to the health director.

After the after-action report is crafted, drills are performed based on what is identified in the improvement plan.

“Even after those drills, when it’s done, you circle back – did it drill out the way you thought? Did you accomplish your goals?” Lyon said.

As a part of protocol, Lyon said she’ll call every health department staff member unannounced to see how quickly they answer their phone to see how long it would take them to respond to an emergency if it were happening that day.

At the Delaware County COVID-19 Memorial earlier this month, state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, D-17 of Delaware and Montgomery counties, spoke of the need to be forward thinking with public health.

“We’re here … because too many members of our community were impacted by the pandemic beyond just a simple adjustment of their daily habits,” she said. “There are empty seats at dinner tables, clothes collecting dust in closets and an emptiness within loved ones’ hearts.”

As Delaware County has lost more than 1,800 community members due to the pandemic, the senator said the path to healing isn’t linear.

“We pause and pay tribute to those that we have lost over the past two years to remember we are not alone in our grief and to remember that your loss is not just a  statistic,” Cappelletti said. “While we are far from the other side of the pandemic, we must remain vigilant in protecting our family, friends and neighbors so that we can avoid just one more unimaginable loss.”