VernonReporter

Crawford County Emergency Management lands grant that will improve emergency communications for whole area

Crawford County Emergency Management Director Jim Hackett

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. – The Crawford County Emergency Management Office has been awarded a Computer and HazMat Response Equipment Grant that will enable the office to purchase a vital piece of communications equipment. Crawford County Emergency Management Director Jim Hackett says the $9,043.74 grant enables his department to purchase a piece of equipment known as a suitcase repeater that will greatly enhance communications across multiple agencies in emergency response situations.

“This equipment will not only benefit us, but any surrounding counties that may request this mobile suitcase repeater,” said Hackett.

The 20 percent local match required to get the grant is covered by a budgeted expense which includes the payment agreement to the Vernon County HazMat Team. This is a four-county team that covers Vernon, Crawford, Iowa, and Richland Counties. Hackett said partnerships like this strengthen all our community responses with specialized training that can be shared across all counties.

Hackett said following a major train derailment this spring where numerous rail cars ended up in the Mississippi River and required multiple agencies to respond, the Train Derailment After Action Report/Improvement Plan revealed an area for improvement. The plan focused on cross-jurisdictional interoperability with communications, including across state lines, multiple jurisdictions, and multiple responder networks (police, Fire, EMS). The After Action Report/Improvement Plan states, “Some mutual aid partners from Iowa do not use national radio standards for radio programming, which makes it difficult for them to communicate with other organizations in a multi-agency incident response.”

Hackett said a suitcase repeater will allow responders to utilize interoperability channels at a longer distance, no matter what agency they are with. Hackett said he believes this should help strengthen the easiest point of failure in any incident “communication capabilities”. hackett said in any incident, this is usually one of the biggest points of failure.

“We always work through any issues that arise and come up with a successful plan. This will just be another tool to strengthen our resiliency,” said Hackett.

Hackett went on to say Crawford County has utilized similar equipment at the County Line Music Festival with great success and they have increased attendee safety, and officer safety 10-fold by fixing communication issues with this equipment.

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