County's EMA board considering upgrade to emergency frequencies
Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency board members spent most of their meeting discussing how they wanted to proceed with putting a 2014 truck out for bid after no one bid on the truck last month.
Board members opted to adjust the minimum threshold and initial listing to attract more potential bidders after not attacking any over the past month.
Agency Director Troy Anderson also discussed the need adjust the county’s emergency frequencies being used as more and more frequencies are being made available for commercial use. The county had been on a M.A.R.K.S radio system years ago but went off of that system due to exorbitant fees. Anderson said a committee has been formed to discuss migrating to 700 MHz frequencies and form a game plan. Anderson said his goal was to be easy on department budgets but bringing fire EMS and law enforcement together so that they could all communicate.
“Right now we are in four different radio systems,” Anderson said.
He also showed board members new river level monitoring devices he plans to install along the Auglaize and St. Marys Rivers. Those devices cost $450 a piece, significantly less than previous devices.
Anderson said in 2020 they had a total of 100 incidents to respond to, including 13 spill responses and 15 instances of disaster assistance.
He is still working on cost recovery for a pursuit in Cridersville. Anderson didn’t have confidence that costs would be recovered.
He said the state and international EMA organizations have been asking him to fill out several surveys about the work he does which helps them justify budgets.