Emergency communication system in Sanders County to be reassesed

Hot Springs Mayor Randy Woods along with Sanders County Sheriff Tom Rummel and Sanders County Sheriff Department radio technician Cody Best met with the county commissioners on Wednesday. Woods voiced his concerns over the lack of redundancy in emergency communications around Hot Springs.

In engineering terminology, redundancy refers to the duplication of critical parts of a system that increases reliability in case of primary system failure.

Commissioners Glen Magera, Carol Brooker and Tony Cox listened closely to Woods as he laid out what he considered to be the deficiencies in the emergency communications system around Hot Springs.

Woods cited the damage to communications equipment on Pat’s Knob as a graphic illustration of the insufficient backup plan. Woods said the county needs redundant systems in place to prevent a breakdown in communications.

“The last time the system at Pat’s Knob went down we talked about this but we never got the ball rolling. We don’t have cell phones in Hot Springs. We have no radios, we have no backup plan,” said Woods.

Woods said Sanders County lacks an adequate backup plan to implement in case the primary system is interrupted similar to the problem on Pat’s Knob. The communications system on Pat’s Knob relays information to emergency responders all over Sanders County.

According to representatives from the Sheriff’s Department there is a backup system that relies on cellular technology. According to Woods, this does not help people in the Hot Springs area because of the weakness or non-existence of cell phone signals.

Sheriff Tom Rummel agreed to set up meetings with key personnel to begin the process of establishing a redundant communications system for Sanders County.

The commissioners agreed steps needed to be taken to develop a backup plan and system and that it might involve linking Sanders County communications with Lake County. Lake County is sometimes dispatched to the Hot Springs area in the case of emergency.

Woods said one problem was the lack of cooperation between the two counties. Rummel agreed to act as a liaison between the necessary agencies to foster a greater level of cooperation in order to ensure emergency services would be dispatched to the proper location in a timely manner.

“Protecting our citizens is our biggest priority. When someone in our county needs help we need to get them that help as soon as possible the best way we can,” said Woods.