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County asks university for money

Tuesday, August 5, 2008
By MARIBETH WARD, Staff Writer

Putnam County Commissioners Kristina Warren, Gene Beck and Jim Baird agreed to Putnam County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Kim Hyten's request to ask DePauw University for help in insuring a Mobile Command Unit.

The EMA received an Indiana Department of Homeland Security Grant for the Mobile Command Unit and was chosen to house the vehicle for District 7.

The unit is a 35-foot self-propelled vehicle with three working areas. It is equipped with mobile and portable communication equipment including a unit that patches VHF and UHF radio systems together. It has an advanced Hybrid Telephone system, laptop computers, Project Hoosier SAFE-T radio system, and a mass camera and satellite telephone system.

Because of budget cuts and uncertainty of property taxes, the EMA is not able to afford the $7,000 insurance on the unit.

Since DePauw University has the densest population in the county, and there is, according to Hyten, a lack of emergency operations resources at the school, the EMA and commissioners are asking the University to assist with insurance expenses.

"Since the vehicle didn't cost the county anything, it would be a shame to give it up for $7,000," commented Beck.

The board also discussed asking the seven counties who will have access to the unit to help with the cost of insurance. The unit is available to Putnam, Clay, Owen, Parke, Sullivan, Vigo, Greene and Vermillion Counties but will be housed in Putnam County.

The Board signed a letter that will be sent with another letter from Hyten to DePauw asking for their assistance.

In other business, the board learned that bids from companies who can work on "membrane roofing" will be accepted by Pyramid on this Thursday, Aug. 7 at 2 p.m. on the first floor of the Putnam County Courthouse. Anyone interested in bidding on the project can show up to see what work is needed.

Commissioners also noted that representatives from the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) will be at the next meeting to give an update on the project.

The next meeting of the County Commissioners will be Monday, August 18 at 6 p.m. at the Courthouse Annex.

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  • What is wrong with the one in Bainbridge? Why does the county need 2?

    -- Posted by Blue6 on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 2:39 AM

  • The one at Bainbridge may not be road-worthy enough for the 8 counties that have access to it being that it was retired as the Bookmobile.

    -- Posted by kubotafan on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 5:23 AM

  • I like the part where they say, "the board signed a letter that will be sent with an additional letter from Hyten". Guess what, I'm sure someone from Depauw has already read the paper. (Or maybe not, there never seems to be much in it.) Besides why would DePauw want to pay for it if it also includes other counties? Just curious. Watch out DePauw, open one door, it becomes a revolving one. You pay for this, then you find yourself paying for that and that and that and that.....

    -- Posted by whodouthinkur on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 8:17 AM

  • Is the $7,000 for insurance a one time payment or every year? A mobile command center would be nice but it still has to be affordable. The other counties that would benefit from this project should have already been asked about their contributions. Who didn't do their homework?

    -- Posted by Focus on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 9:46 AM

  • Of the seven counties that will have access to the unit, they are all on the west side of Indiana. I wonder why the unit will be housed in Putnam County which is on the far east side of the group. As for DePauw, I don't know why they should be asked to pay the whole amount, if there are six other counties involved. I do think that DePauw should be paying some share of the fire protection and other services that Greencastle gives them. If they are already doing that, the community needs to know it.

    -- Posted by not gullible on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 10:14 AM

  • The counties involved comprise Region 7 served by Task Force 7.

    -- Posted by FAW on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 10:51 AM

  • For the record, there's a long history of DePauw's support for GFD, as noted in a national magazine: "DePauw has contributed significant funds toward the purchase of a new pumper truck for the fire department, a thermal-imaging camera, and a "safe house" where area schoolchildren learn first hand what can happen during a fire and how they should react."

    http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13598

    -- Posted by JustTheFax on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 11:11 AM

  • It's the least the University can do for the GFD. I can't help but think that all those false alarms waste a fair bit of their resources.

    -- Posted by codasco704 on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 1:43 PM

  • codasco704, have you actually looked at the statistics for fire runs?

    DePauw isn't responsible for near as much as people would think.

    -- Posted by nativeillinoisan on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 5:20 PM

  • THEY SHOULD HAVE TO HELP PAY.....THEY'VE JUST ABOUT TAKEN OVER THE CITY ANYWAY.

    -- Posted by Michele1953 on Tue, Aug 5, 2008, at 5:44 PM

  • Is the $7,000.00 for insurance a one time expenditure or annually? What about the upkeep of this vehicle? Would overtime budgets rise because of who is responding from which county?

    There are some questions to be answered.

    -- Posted by Focus on Wed, Aug 6, 2008, at 6:08 AM

  • Same ol' same ol..... All fire dept. in the county are called to help when GRSTLE has something major (on any structures in their area C'dale is always called) but it's always GRSTLE that gets monetary benefits from DPU..... We're used to it....

    -- Posted by BGreader on Wed, Aug 6, 2008, at 1:53 PM
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