State Senator John C. Rafferty Jr., R-44th, has announced that Pennsylvania State Police has agreed to re-open the Skippack State Police barracks in Montgomery County on a full-time basis, effective May 2.

For more than two years, Rafferty has been pushing Gov. Ed Rendell and State Police officials to reverse their decision to institute a pilot program in which the State Police began closing the Skippack barracks for 16 hours every weekday and all weekend.

Between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, a clerk was available to answer phone calls and assist visitors, Rafferty says, but after these hours, the barrack would “go dark” and all calls and visitors were directed to an automated Consolidated Dispatch Center. The program began in December 2006.

"My concern has always been about public safety. People expect that a state trooper or an official clerk will be at barracks when they go there." said Rafferty, chairman of the Senate Law & Justice Committee.

Rafferty, whose district includes the Skippack barracks, held public hearings on the issue.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved Rafferty's Senate Bill 318 in May 2007 requiring all State Police barracks to remain open 24 hours a day, every day, but the bill was not considered in the Democratically-controlled state House last session.