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Winchester donates old radio to Camp McKee

July 18, 2012|By Casey Castle | The Winchester Sun

First responders throughout Clark County will have some new radios thanks to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security.

The Winchester Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday to use Homeland Security funds to replace units at the Winchester Police Department, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the Clark County Fire Department, Clark County Detention Center and Winchester Fire-EMS.

The radios will replace older units that have become obsolete with the departments’ current systems since switching over to digital. The radios are replaced as needed, depending on personnel.

“We do this kind of in phases,” City Manager Ken Kerns said. “We get part of that money each year. We do radios, we also do mobile data terminals.”

First responders have been making the switch over from analog since earlier this year.

The total cost of replacing the radios for this phase, both mobile and portable, will be $63,455, but that money will come from grant money from Homeland Security. The city and county will not have to match or take on any of the cost.

Winchester Fire-EMS Chief Eric Hunter asked commissioners to consider marking older radios as surplus and donating five mobile radios and 14 portable radios to the Bluegrass Council’s Camp McKee Scout Reservation, a 900-acre camp serving 55 counties — including Clark County — of Boy Scouts of America.
Donating old radios isn’t new for the first responders.

“In the past, for example, when the police had surplus radios, they gave those to public works,” Kerns said.

The Commission agreed to begin the process which would first mark the old radios as surplus then donate them.

In other business, the Board:
— discussed street closings for the Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival, George Rogers Clark varsity cheerleaders’ Walk with Friends event and Shackelford Lodge’s car show.
— considered rescheduling the Aug. 21 meeting to Aug. 20 to accommodate Commissioner Kenny Book, who will be attending the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Taxes in Lexington on Aug. 21.

Contact Casey Castle at ccastle@winchestersun.com.

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