The Marion County Board has agreed to allow the newly reorganized county emergency management agency to purchase both an indoor and outdoor drone for a cost of $23,562.
There were some questions about the drones not being in the budget and drones already being available from a county through a fire department. Eventually, the board agreed to the purchase with $8,500 raised while now county Director Andrew Strong was the city’s director, with the rest coming from a county EMA fund that has money available after an earlier decision to purchase only one new vehicle for the agency instead of two.
Strong says the drones are very useful tools to first responders and cited the weekend tornadoes as an example.
“Drones can be up in the air in a matter of minutes and assist first responders with thermal imaging and see through debris,” Strong said. “Smaller drones can get into areas quicker and safer than first responders can. This would be a that I want any first responder agency in the county to benefit from. Having it housed here in the county and a team that’s properly trained up to date on it, in my mind benefits the public and all of the first responder agencies in the county.”
Strong expects more members to join to be part of the drone program and he welcomes members from other emergency response agencies to be trained as well. There will be no cost for the training that can be done on line.
County board chair Steve Whritenour says the drones will now be ordered and should arrive in the next few months.
In other action, the board named Strong chair of the Marion County Local Emergency Planning Committee. The appointment fulfills federal and state hazardous materials coordination requirements.
The Marion County LEPC was then established as the county’s designated committee for hazmat emergency planning, community right to know coordination and multi-agency response preparation.
The Emergency Management Agency will also be allowed to accept charitable donations and gifts to support emergency management operations, training, equipment and preparedness act.
