Speaking in a measured tone one would expect from a sealer, Bannon said, "What I want to make people aware of is our commodities checking. We check every scale in every market in Bucks County, every year."
Bent on making sure that no one gets ripped off, weights and measures officials are in gas stations, supermarkets, jewelry shops and fabric stores, ensuring that whatever is sold by weight, measure, unit or count is checked, balanced, accurate and fair.
Before 1996, every Pennsylvania county was required to have a weights and measures department. A change in state law made county programs optional. After weighing the pros and cons, nearly half of the 67 counties bowed out. Though the scale tipped in favor of weights and measures in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester and Delaware Counties, it tilted against them in Montgomery County and 32 others.
"We did it to save money," said John Corcoran, Montgomery County spokesman. "It is a state responsibility. We turned it back to the state."
The departments tend not to produce much revenue, because weights and measures officials prefer to help businesses comply rather than fine them, said Henry Oppermann, chief of the institute's Weights and Measures Division.
Still, Oppermann said, there's a reason that weights and measures officials have always been a part of American government and have been around since biblical times.
"If there's a lack of regulatory authority, things seem to deteriorate," Oppermann said.
Montgomery County, which still has a consumer affairs division, saved about $200,000 when it disbanded its four-member weights and measures staff in June. For the last nine months, the task of scale-testing and pump-calibrating has fallen to the state Bureau of Ride and Measurement Standards, whose staff of 19 has expanded by only two since 1996.
