Mentone Council Discusses Emergency Communication System
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
MENTONE – Narrow bandwidth frequencies required by federal law have caused communication problems between emergency services for several years in the county. The Kosciusko County Firemen’s Association is working toward a solution, but it will cost more than half a million dollars. Monday night, the association’s president and a 32-year fireman, Kevin McSherry, gave his first formal presentation on the solution to the Mentone Town Council. He will be giving the presentation throughout the county. The solution is a countywide dispatch simulcast system. It would include placing signal towers in Milford, Leesburg, Warsaw, Mentone, Pierceton and Silver Lake with a relay tower in Claypool. “We have struggled at this end of the county with communication,” McSherry said. The system will go all over the county and is independent of anyone’s current system, he said. A federal grant has been applied for, asking for 20 percent of the approximate $660,000 cost. Around Christmas time, McSherry said, he got a call and the grant application was moved up to the next level in the process. Jay County did the same thing, he said, and three months after the phone call they received, they were awarded the grant. Kosciusko County Community Foundation is working with the association to collect needed money above and beyond the grant, McSherry said. The grant also will not pay for structures like towers, just equipment. If they aren’t awarded the grant, McSherry said the money that is collected will be put where the greatest need is, which would be the Mentone area. The Mentone area has problems with communication in part because of the area’s low elevation. It would need a tower about 160 feet high. There are different ways the signal can travel with the system, so if one or two towers are lost, calls can still be heard. “The system is designed to handle multiple agencies simultaneously,” McSherry said. He said when they first realized the cost of the system, they were “sticker shocked,” but it will handle every emergency service, including fire, EMS, police and county highway. “It has plenty of room,” McSherry noted. Warsaw already bought their repeater and put it on Station 1, McSherry said, and their radio is working fine. Chief Mike Brubaker wants in on the county system too. “Before they added their piece, they couldn’t talk to each other four to six blocks away,” Mentone Fire Chief Mike Yazel said. It’s also capable of going digital with minor programming. After going through some of the detail of the system, McSherry stated, “The goal of the project is to provide emergency communications to Kosciusko County.” He did not ask for a decision by the board, but wanted to open dialogue on the system. Each tower will require a contract, and McSherry asked the council for their thoughts on how long the contract should be. Councilwoman Jill Gross said definitely more than a year, probably five years. A lot can happen in 10 years, she said. “I’d like to get a cookie-cutter contract so I can take it with me from place to place,” McSherry said. As for the grant application, he said the association has to be independent to apply for the grant, but it is the organization’s intent to hand the system over to the county. The association doesn’t have a funding mechanism in place and there will be annual maintenance and insurance costs of about $6,000 after the third year. “We’re pretty confident this is a good working system,” said Yazel. “This is definitely needed. It’s been needed for some time,” Gross said. “I know we’re going to be on board with this because there’s no upfront costs and it’s about protecting our communities. I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to be on this,” said Tim Croy, town council president.
