When Starke County COAD met for the first time Tuesday night, a question from one of the county’s amateur radio operators prompted a discussion about the communication systems utilized by the county’s emergency personnel.
Hamlet Fire Chief and Starke County Council President Brad Hazelton explained that some emergency personnel, such as the Sherriff’s Department, use radios that run on the 800 megahertz spectrum while others, like the fire departments, utilize very high frequency, or VHF technology. Hazelton said, “We can talk to EMS, because they’re VHF and 800 but the police are only 800 and we’re only VHF.”
The Pastor of the Knox Church of the Nazarene, Rick Martin, inquired about how the inconsistencies impact communication between agencies, “If they had to get a hold of you, or if you had to get a hold of them, are you saying that’s not possible?”
Hazelton replied, “If police need to get a hold of us, they have to call back to dispatch and then dispatch will have to relay to us.”
Chief Hazelton mentioned that assistance from the Hamlet Fire Department wasn’t needed much during the recent flooding event since response efforts were primarily concentrated in Knox so he couldn’t comment on whether or not the convoluted line of communication caused any problems.
Hazelton mentioned, while this is something they would like to address, the radios would cost approximately $5,000 a piece and each of the county’s 7 fire departments would require 6 to 7 radios. In order to get all the county’s fire departments equipped with 800 megahertz radios, it would cost around $30-$35,000 per department, resulting in a total cost of over $300,000.
Hazelton noted that right now, fixing this problem is not financially feasible as there isn’t currently enough money in the county’s budget to address it. He added that there were issues in the past with utilizing grant funds to obtain 800 MHz radios that turned out to be faulty.
The topics of improving the county’s emergency communication system and establishing a chain of command consisting of volunteers will be discussed more when the Starke County Community Organizations Active in Disasters group meets in the future.
