|
Warren to get communications gear with grant
Nov 07, 2009 (The Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
A state Homeland Security grant awarded to Warren County is expected to lead to improved communications equipment for county emergency first responders and law enforcement.
The $115,505 grant was announced Thursday for the Warren County Fiscal Court and provides for four Very High Frequency (VHF) repeaters/amplifiers, two antennas, five control stations and two mapping software units.
The grant will be split among the Warren County Rescue Department, Warren County Sheriff's Office and Warren County Emergency Management.
Andy Tucker, director of the rescue department, said the grant comes at a fortuitous moment.
Federal Communications Commission mandates are requiring that communication systems the rescue department and other licensees have in place comply with new regulations by 2013.
Tucker said the grant will enable his agency to do just that.
"We had applied for this as a communications project to replace our repeaters at our tower sites and to update our radio infrastructure," Tucker said.
The original grant application, written with the assistance of Brent Childers of the Barren River Area Development District, asked for $280,000 in funding to replace the radio repeaters at tower sites and to put new radios in cruisers, Tucker said.
Though reduced substantially from the initial application, the grant should still provide the three agencies with communications equipment that falls within the same radio frequency range, according to Tucker, fostering an improvement in communication among different emergency response agencies.
"With this grant, we hope to put a single infrastructure radio system in all our people's hands," Tucker said of his rescue department, which consists of 36 members.
Deborah Williams, media representative for the rescue squad, said grants from the state and other entities are becoming more essential to help fund technological improvements for first responders.
"I think the fact that we are constantly seeking funding to assist in operations we perform for the community is essential in these economic times, but this particular (grant) is going to mean a lot to this community," Williams said.
To see more of the Bowling Green Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper,
go to http://www.bgdailynews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Daily News, Bowling
Green, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints,
email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send
a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee
Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
