East Oregonian 08/05/2009
Radio system district gaining support
Some eastern cities remain unsure
By Samantha Bates
Emergency responders in Umatilla and Morrow counties have banded together to propose a ballot measure that would create a taxing district to support an enhanced radio system. Most of the work to build the district has been smooth, but there has been at least one speed bump.
The long-term goal is to keep the 450-megahertz radio system - installed in many areas by the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program with federal dollars - up and running after the closure of the Umatilla Chemical Depot in a year or two.
The radio system in the two counties enables emergency responders from any of the towns to communicate with one another.
East Oregonian 04/17/2009
Special district bill finds success
CSEPP to be part of new state-wide system
Reporter: Erin Mills
House Bill 3254 is swiftly moving through the state legislature, thanks in part to a troupe of emergency responders and politicians from Eastern Oregon who traveled to Salem this week.
Dressed in uniform, Umatilla Fire Chief Mike Roxbury and others testified for the House Veterans and Emergency Services Committee in support of the bill, which would legalize a special taxing district for the bi-county 450 megahertz communications system.
Thirty-one public safety agencies in Morrow and Umatilla counties use the system. The Federal Emergency Management Agency built it - to the tune of $14 million - for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. When the Army stops destroying chemical munitions next May or June, its support of the radio system will end, leaving local populations to foot the bill.
East Oregonian & Hermiston Herald 12/23/2008
Council endorses CSEPP radio system plan
By Eric Florip
When the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility ceases operations - which the Army expects to happen in 2013 - it will bring an end to funding for a 450 MHz radio system fire and law enforcement agencies use across Umatilla and Morrow counties.
One of those is the Hermiston Police Department. It, like several others, would like to see the system stay once the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, or CSEPP, ends and federal funding dries up.
The Hermiston City Council formally endorsed that goal Monday, voting unanimously to support creation of a special taxing district to keep the system intact after CSEPP.
Hermiston Herald 12/19/2008
Radio system gaining ground Officials consider two-county tax system for support
Umatilla and Morrow counties may need a special taxing district to support the 450-megahertz radio system installed by the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program in 2004. CSEPP and Umatilla County Emergency Management representative Shawn Halsey brought this idea before the Umatilla County Local Public Safety Coordinating Council Dec. 9. Halsey said 13 facilities in Umatilla, Morrow, Benton and Klickitat counties use the 450 system. In Umatilla County that includes the cities of Pendleton, Hermiston and Echo, along with rural fire departments in Umatilla, Stanfield, Pilot Rock, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the East Umatilla Rural Fire Department. Until now federal dollars through CSEPP have paid for and maintained the system. For the past several years a user board has been considering what to do after CSEPP is gone.