NORWICH – Lawmakers spent nearly an hour last week debating whether to spend less than $2,000 for a defibrillator for the nursing office at the Chenango County Office Building.

Public Health Director Marcas Flindt told members of two committees that county employees and the public regularly visit the Court Street building’s first floor offices when they are ill, and his nursing staff had requested a defibrillator for emergency situations.

“We should ideally have one in the nursing office, one in the board room and perhaps one on each floor even,” Flindt told committee members of Health and Human Services and Finance.

Lacking the available funds in the public health department’s budget, the director asked the Finance Committee for direction in order to purchase two defibrillators. In the interim, he said he would explore grant opportunities and the possibility of borrowing the defibrillator when necessary from the Sixth Judicial Court District’s offices, also located in the county’s office building.