County buys Mobile Command Post

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

County Executive Kenneth Rogers, left, and chief investigator Herb Rowland stand in front of the county’s recently purchased motor home which will be converted into a mobile command post for local emergency services.

The county has purchased a motor home which will be used as a mobile command center for local emergency services in the event of a disaster.

The vehicle was purchased and will be outfitted with the money from a $40,000 federal Homeland Security grant. It’s going to be called the Warren County Mobile Command Post.

County Executive Kenneth Rogers said this was the “first wave” as far as this type of grant for the county and indicated there will be more to come.

The decision to obtain the Mobile Command Post was made by a committee brought together last year to decide how to spend the grant money most effectively. Officials from several emergency services, law enforcement and local communities were invited to serve on the committee.

“The sheriff’s department, volunteer firemen, ambulance service, rescue squad, and the cities of McMinnville, Viola, Morrison, and Centertown and the EMA director were invited,” Rogers said. “And we sat down and met on this, and worked on it in May and June last year.”

The consensus of these meetings was that a Mobile Command Post would be the best first step to take with the available grant money. The vehicle will be well-equipped with communication equipment and could even be used as a sort of temporary 911 center if the permanent center was disabled for some reason.

The Mobile Command Post is a 37-foot Elite model motor home manufactured by Fleetwood. Bids were submitted and it was purchased used from an individual for $25,000. Its retail value new is reported to be around $47,000.

The vehicle, a 1991 model with 43,000 miles, was checked thoroughly before the county purchased it, according to Rogers. The committee budgeted $25,000 for the vehicle with the rest of the $40,000 grant going to buy equipment.

Rogers noted this grant cost the county taxpayers nothing, as it was a straight federal grant with no matching funds required.

The Mobile Command Post will be stored at the Warren County Administration Offices and will be under the direct supervision of sheriff’s department chief investigator Herb Rowland. Rogers said the county may eventually build a garage to house it when money becomes available.

“This is for all Warren countians,” Rogers said. “This means the rescue squad, the sheriff’s department, ambulance service, Centertown, Viola, Morrison and McMinnville, everybody. It’s for Warren County. All they have to do is call us and we’ll roll it to the scene.”