When the devastating Tubbs Fire tore through Sonoma County in 2017, Cazadero resident Tony Goodwin found himself unable to communicate with his wife. The terrifying experience inspired Goodwin to equip his home with General Mobile Radio Service and help his neighbors and surrounding communities join the network.
As emergency preparedness came to dominate Sonoma County’s discourse, the radio network designed for short-range, two-way communication grew. Goodwin has helped set up radio boxes using the GMRS system for locations around the county including at a new communications tower in Cloverdale.
The communications tower comes equipped with fire cameras, radio service and a fail-safe digital communications network. Upon completion, the solar-powered tower will also include a weather station that can measure meteorological conditions including wind speed and report it in real time.
“It’s turning out to be a really, really cool project,” said Johannes Hoevertsz, Sonoma County’s public infrastructure director.
The fire cameras cover Sonoma County from Windsor to the Mendocino County border.
The cameras, set up last week, will run through a one-year pilot program, Hoevertsz said. He added that the county and its project partners have yet to decide who will manage the cameras during the one-year trial and how the images will be made available to the public.
The county teamed up with Northern Sonoma County Community Emergency Response Team and radio volunteers on the project, making it the county’s first public-private communications tower.
Hoevertsz estimated the project cost about $250,000 to build, covered by county funds and community partners. Volunteers will monitor the radios and cameras, and all partners will have to cover maintenance on the tower’s road.
The communications systems were put to use earlier this year when Cazadero lost power during the winter storms.
“We at one point were trapped; all our exits were blocked by trees,” said Goodwin. “We had no communication via cellular phone or landline, but our radios, our infrastructure we put in for radios, worked.”
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