By Rusty Marks
The Charleston Gazette
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — On an evening when many Americans were recalling the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack that destroyed the Twin Towers, members of the Kanawha County Commission voted to invest in tools to help law enforcement officers, firefighters and ambulance personnel do their jobs.
Following a solemn presentation of the colors by the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department honor guard at a regular County Commission meeting Thursday, commissioners Kent Carper, Dave Hardy and Hoppy Shores agreed to buy four new ambulances, fund computer upgrades for almost every police car in the county and provide supplemental funding to more than two dozen fire departments in the county.
Commissioners voted to spend about $361,000 total for the new ambulances, with half to be paid for from the general county budget and half from coal severance funds. Joe Lynch, executive director of the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority, said the county operates about 35 ambulances every day, but that some of the vehicles are old and unsafe. Lynch said the ambulances will replace some units that have about 400,000 miles on them.
Carper, Hardy and Shores also agreed to help Sheriff Johnny Rutherford pay for an approximately $1 million project to upgrade police radio software for the sheriff’s department and every law enforcement agency in the county except the Charleston Police Department, which maintains its own radio system. The new software will allow police officers and deputies in their cars and at the headquarters building to see exactly the same information that dispatchers at Metro 911 see.
Rutherford will pay for about $450,000 of the project out of his budget, with the county picking up about $615,000.
Also Thursday, commissioners passed out their annual contributions to the county’s paid and volunteer fire departments. The county gives the departments $20,000 a year as a supplement to the departments’ regular budgets.
Also Thursday, commissioners publicly swore in the county’s two newest canine deputies. Rutherford said the county decided to get two bloodhounds after having to call on the state Division of Forestry several years ago for sniffing dogs to help track down a suspect in a case in Clendenin.
Alibi and Loosie are two four-month-old dogs who are currently being trained. Rutherford said the dogs will be used to track down missing persons or track suspects.
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©2014 The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.)