Building will have flat screen TV, computers and vaccine refrigerator
Staff writer
A state grant meant to relieve financial strain caused by COVID-19 will be used to buy a new trailer and storage building for the county’s emergency management department.
The 8½-feet by 24-feet trailer, requested by emergency manager Randy Frank, will be loaded with chairs, filing cabinets, monitors, computers, a printer, a flat screen TV, cables and accessories, a trailer stabilizer, an Internet hub, four mobile radios, a radio mounting system, and a vaccine refrigerator.
It will be used as an emergency response trailer for an assortment of purposes including training, and as a mobile vaccine clinic, both during a pandemic and afterward.
It would be used as an emergency command center whenever needed, Frank said.
The cost of the trailer, complete with additions, will be $98,190.
County commissioners had mixed feelings about the expense of the purchase.
Chairman Kent Becker asked Frank Monday how the trailer could be towed from one location to another.
Frank said his department has a ¾-ton pickup and a 1-ton pickup.
Although it will be stored at Hillsboro, commissioners told Frank they want it to be seen in every city.
“If we buy this thing, I want it used, not just sitting there,” Becker said.
The trailer’s purchase was approved by unanimous vote. So was a $33,473 storage facility, to be built east of the sheriff’s office.
Frank said the 24 by 30 foot storage facility, which would be 11 feet tall, would be used to hold personal protection equipment and first response equipment for law enforcement agencies in the county.
The building costs $8,682; $8,250 for concrete flooring; $8,714 to build; $3,200 for shelving; and $4,600 for two laptops and software.
The trailer and storage unit are being paid for out of the county’s $433,000 share of $2.4 million given to it as part of a Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas grant from the state.
The $2.4 million had to be shared with schools, cities, nonprofit organizations, and businesses. Part of the money also had to be used for public health purposes.
The trailer could arrive as soon as early October.