By Zeke MacCormack
San Antonio Express
Copyright 2007 San Antonio Express-News
All Rights Reserved
MEDINA COUNTY, Texas — Officials are scrambling to fix radios relied on by emergency responders across Medina County after a lightning strike crippled the aging system.
“It’s a big problem,” Sheriff Randy Brown said. “It can be a life-and-death situation at any time.”
The channel that was knocked out June 23 could resume service by the end of this month if county commissioners select a vendor Monday to repair the equipment, located at a tower in Dunlay.
Until then, only one frequency remains available to all law enforcement agencies, firefighters and ambulance crews. Many emergency crews now rely on cell phones, particularly in outlying areas where radio reception is hit and miss.
Officials fear another lightning strike could shut down the entire radio system.
“That’s a very big concern,” said Susie Mateljan, supervisor of the dispatch center at the Sheriff’s Office in Hondo.
Besides coordinating deputies, her staff is juggling calls for 13 fire departments, five police departments, four constables, three emergency medical services and up to three state troopers.
“It’s been a chore, but we’re managing it as best we can,” Mateljan said.
County Judge Jim Barden said the county moved quickly after the outage to hire a repair company but that initial estimates neared $25,000, the threshold where bids are required.
He hopes to have bids ready for a vote Monday, but repairs can’t happen fast enough for emergency entities.
“It’s a really big concern at this end of the county,” Natalia Mayor Ruby Vera said. “They’re saying that they’re working on it, but, in the interim, the county needs to come up with some kind of alternate way for the agencies to communicate.”
The need to improve the radio network -- by adding more towers and new equipment -- was clear even before lightning caused a crisis.
“We started talking about that back in 2002, and we’ve slowly been working toward it,” Brown said.
He predicted that the cost to upgrade the network and comply with federal regulations would top $1 million. But grants may help cover the cost, he said.
It’s unclear why the strike at the tower disabled the frequency used by firefighters and ambulance services and not the law enforcement agencies’ channel, Brown said.