By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab County is the home of a new HazMat trailer which
came to the county through a state and federal grant under
the auspices of the new Homeland Security office.
Now the county needs to have a document signed by
Sept. 3 which allows the county to participate in the
cooperative program.
Before that can be done, Jared Eldridge, county
attorney, will need to scrutinize the document to make
certain it meets the needs of the county.
Alden Orme, county sheriff, said the trailer was
picked up by his deputies on Monday.
"Gary Corbin is our trained person with the EMS
(emergency medical services)," said Orme.
Unfortunately, Corbin's time with that responsibility
has been limited since he has been the jailer, a dispatcher,
and has had other jobs of importance with the sheriff's
office.
"I am in the process of changing all of that," said
Orme.
His plan, he told county commissioners, is to hire
another person and divide the responsibilities between them.
Both would be trained which can be done by using an $8,000
grant for that purpose.
"In the future, I see us having a full-time EMS
director," said Orme. "That is what other counties have
done."
The HazMat trailer, fully equipped with materials
needed, will be stationed in Nephi and, for the time being,
will most likely be housed at the ambulance shed since the
EMTs will be most likely to need its services.
On request, the HazMat trailer could go to any area in
the state where it was needed to assist with a hazardous
spill or any other natural or man made disaster.
"It would be stationed here but, on request, we would
cooperate with other areas where the equipment is needed,"
said Wm. Boyd Howarth, commission chairman.
The Utah Highway Patrol was once over the hazardous
material incidents in the state, however, the lack of
funding to that department coupled with federal mandates
that the system should be administrated by counties, has
lead to the need for Juab County to develop their own
system.
"I think a good thing for counties to do would be to
set up a pool, as we do with other items," said Robert
Steele, commissioner.
Just like fire insurance, a pool of money would be
amassed by all counties who belong to the pool. Then, if the
money is needed to fight a hazardous event, the money would
be present and it would not break any county.
It is legally mandated that the county sheriff's
office be over HazMat, said Orme. However, the EMS council,
which is already in place in Juab, will work as a team.
"The medical people, the emergency people, the fire
people and the sheriff's office people will work closely
together and will be a team," said Orme.
Now was the time to act, he said, so the county could
get in on the grant money while it was still available.
The county also needs to hurry with the signing of the
document because it is holding up some of the grant
money.
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