Public hearings wlll be held at 7:30 p.m. March 26 at the Lycoming County Courthouse on the problems of present emergency communications systems operating in the county.

Called by the Lycoming County Planning Commission, the hearings will be used as part of the commission’s study on a possible county-wide communications network.

“The hearings are for information gathering purposes only,” said Dennis E. Grove, of the planning commission staff.

Following the hearings, which will be held in Court Room, No. 3, the commission will begin work on its recommendations for a county-wide police, fire and ambulance communications system. A preliminary recommendation should be made in April.

A second round of hearings will be held in May to consider the commission’s recommendations.

Additional public hearings will be if public reaction to the commission’s recommendations is generally favorable, if this is the case, a final expected by August or September.

The planning commission was called in when an initial proposal to locate a countywide emergency system at the state police barracks in Montoursville met with stiff opposition from city officials.

The opposition surface in January when Mayor John R. Coder and John M. Samony, director of public safety, criticized the proposal, saying, “It is not a feasible program.”

City officials argued that the emergency system should be set at the Williamsport Fire Department headquarters.

The county commissioners proposed a network which would use room at the state police barracks, but which would be manned by county employed dispatchers. Under this proposal the state police would let the communities tied into the network use a computer link to police records.