Shorewood Even More Ready For That Disaster When It Happens

First the Shorewood Village Board bought a 2011 Chevy Tahoe to help the town cope with a disaster, and now it it is purchasing new communications equipment that can be used in dire situations.

The board voted unanimously — except for trustee Celine Schwartz, who was absent — to pick up half the tab for the fixed site communications equipment during its meeting Tuesday night.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency is ponying up $17,031 for the other half, according to a memo from Public Works Supt. Roger Barrowman to the the board.

"This upgrade will allow us to monitor communications and communicate with emergency responders from the [emergency operations center] located at the Village Hall," Barrowman said in the memo.

"In addition the system will allow us to move to several back-up locations including the police station, and fire station 1 and 2. This system will operate on the already in-place ethernet wireless canopy system the village invested in last fiscal year."

The new communications system will be especially handy if a disaster destroys various public buildings.

"So if one structure got knocked out, we could move anywhere we needed to?" trustee Dan Anderson asked during the meeting.

Barrowman assured Anderson that this was indeed the case.

Anderson also pointed out that the versatile system could even be used in the new, four-wheel drive Chevy Tahoe the village bought for Emergency Service and Disaster Agency Director Aaron Klima.

The Tahoe cost the village $30,305.