TRUMBULL COUNTY Modified truck will be used as mobile crisis unit

The truck will have a 40-foot tower.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A 36-foot truck that began its life as a Howland Local Schools mobile classroom is being groomed to resume duty as a traveling crisis command post.
Trumbull County officials have big plans for the truck, which will have lights, cameras and communications capacity similar to that of a police or fire dispatch center.
"It is something that we have wanted for a long time," said Timothy Gladis, director of Trumbull County 911. "In an emergency, anything you need will be right nearby."
The truck, which is being modified by the Trumbull County sheriff's department, hazardous materials team, emergency planing agency and 911, will be available to serve as a command post during any kind of incident necessitating a major response, ranging from large rallies to fires, chemical spills and natural disasters, Gladis said.
"There is a blackboard in it, tables, everything you need will be right there," he said.
The closest thing to this available now is the Haz-Mat team's command center, which is so full of equipment there is no room to hold briefings, said Don Waldron, the Haz-Mat team's head.
Provides privacy: When the new mobile command center is finished, the people in charge of handling an emergency will be able to make decisions in privacy, he said.
"We close the doors, and there's no danger that what we are saying we are going to do is going to get out," Waldron said. "We go inside a confined area and nobody can look in and say, 'Hey, this is what they are doing.'"
Features: The mobile command center will also have three 911 consoles, giving it the capacity to take over communications for any one of the eight dispatch centers in Trumbull County, Gladis said.
Should one of the six communications towers in Trumbull County be knocked out by a storm, the command center could be driven to the area and temporarily take over with the 40-foot telescoping tower planned for its roof, he said.
The communications equipment will also be able to patch communications among officers on the scene from different fire or police departments, who may have radios with different frequencies, he said.
Also mounted on the tower will be floodlights and a video camera, controlled by remote control and wired to a television and videocassette recorder in the truck. The camera will allow officials on the scene to get a look at a chemical spill or fire without having to send in people right away, Gladis said.
Costs: The 911 consoles will cost about $58,000, the hydraulic tower about $10,000, a generator to power it all, $8,000, and it will be an additional several thousand dollars to add an awning to the vehicle's side, Waldron said.
As well as dipping into their own funds, the agencies have solicited donations to equip the truck. The Kmart Distribution Center donated the television and VCR, and First Energy donated six portable two-way radios, Waldron said.
In an emergency, the radios would be distributed to the top people in charge at the emergency, he said. The radios will operate on a secret frequency, so the conversations can't be overheard by people with scanners, he said.