The Ohio Department of Public Safety presented a $440,000 communication bus Thursday to the Geauga County Sheriff's Office for use during large-scale emergencies in an eight-county region.
Equipped with radio, phone, Internet and weather-monitoring gear, the bus was purchased through U.S. Homeland Security funds and will serve Summit, Portage and six other Northeast Ohio counties.
The vehicle is for emergencies such as terrorist attacks, weather disasters and hostage situations.
It is part of a yearlong plan to place 11 such buses around Ohio.
Gadgets on the bus include a rooftop video camera, a crime lab, a flat-screen monitor and phones compatible with land and mobile lines. The bus will serve as a mobile communication center among police, fire and other emergency responders, which often use different radio bands.
''If it's an emergency, then we need to rock 'n' roll and we need to rock 'n' roll pretty quickly,'' Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland said at a Thursday news conference.
Geauga was selected for the bus because of its central location in the region, which includes Ashtabula, Lake, Trumbull, Mahoning and Cuyahoga counties, said C.J. Couch, spokesman for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, a division of the public safety department that manages the program.
According to the sheriff, most of the vehicle's components are covered under a three- to five-year warranty. Therefore, there is no immediate liability for maintenance. However, by accepting the responsibility of housing the bus, the county is responsible for operating costs.
''We prefer to have to provide for the fuel and other costs of the vehicle so that we are able to house it in Geauga County,'' said Geauga Commissioner Bill Young.
Depending on the emergency, McClelland said, Geauga could bill a requesting county after the vehicle is used in an emergency -- if there are considerable operation costs.
Twelve deputies were trained to use the vehicle.
It will be stationed in Burton Township and is the second to be placed in the state. The first was sent to Chillicothe, south of Columbus, and cost about $175,000, Ross County Chief Deputy Don Hayburn said.
Hayburn said the office has received one call for the vehicle because of a hostage situation in Jackson County, but the call came in before the vehicle's July 15 delivery.
''This is an initiative that's unique to Ohio,'' Couch said.
Distributed by the Associated Press
