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County Gets $5.6M to Boost First Responders

“The equipment will be newer, more agile, more reliable, but covers the same area,” said Daniel Milei, chief information officer for the San Luis Obispo County Information Technology Department. “People will be able to respond to incidents much quicker than before.”

San Luis Obispo County will receive $5.6 million of federal money to improve communications systems used by emergency responders for fire, crime and medical emergencies, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal announced this week.

“Our first responders work around the clock to keep our communities safe and to help Central Coast families in emergencies,” the San Luis Obispo Democrat said at a news conference. “Since they have our backs every single day, it’s my job as their representative and a member of our Central Coast community to have theirs.”

The grant will be allocated to five projects, ranging from building new radio communications towers in areas with limited service to improving existing towers, according to a news release from Carbajal’s office. Emergency service agencies such as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE) and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office use radio towers to communicate.

When someone calls 911, that call is bounced from agency to agency through radio waves among communication towers. Officers in the field responding to emergencies also rely on those communications towers to talk with each other and their headquarters.

Of the $5.6 million, $1.1 million will be used to replace the communications tower on top of Cuesta Peak, and another $1.1 million will replace the La Panza tower, the release said.

“The equipment will be newer, more agile, more reliable, but covers the same area,” said Daniel Milei, chief information officer for the San Luis Obispo County Information Technology Department. “People will be able to respond to incidents much quicker than before.”

The county will also build two new communications towers in areas that currently have limited service.

A new $1.25 million tower will be built in Nipomo to handle communications in South County and the Nipomo Mesa area, and the other $1.25 million communications tower will be built in west Paso Robles and cover the Lake Nacimiento area.

Milei noted that with the two new towers, SLO County will have nine total communications towers, providing law enforcement with more reliable communication.

“We will never have full coverage, but we’re getting very close,” Milei said. “Very close means safety — safety for everyone.”

The county will use $600,000 to create a countywide radio channel to be used exclusively for the Sheriff’s Office, and $300,000 to add more radio communications channels to the Cave Landing communications center in Avila Beach, which covers Diablo Canyon Power Plant, the news release said.

These projects are funded by the 2022 federal funding bill, which allocated about $18 million in direct funding to the Central Coast.

© 2022 The Tribune (San Luis Obispo). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.