Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: It's time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 1: K one, the one you trust. We have the Washington
Speaker 1: County Emergency Management in here today and we got you all.
Speaker 2: I hope nothing happens.
Speaker 1: Carrie Cox, the director of Melissa Mays. I talked to
Speaker 1: you on the phone quite a bit, John Mosley with
Speaker 1: the Floodplain in nine one one. Boy, if it's springtime
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma, there's a lot of things happening, and you
Speaker 1: were just telling me we've got the whole expanse, don't we.
Speaker 1: It's seventy two degrees here today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, seventy two degrees here today. There the forecast is
Speaker 3: telling us in western Oklahoma they may have record snowfall
Speaker 3: this weekend.
Speaker 2: I ought to be here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they can set us a postcard right Facebook.
Speaker 2: But we've got fire possibilities today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got high fire danger today. It's that time
Speaker 3: of year, you know, springtime here in northeast Oklahoma. So
Speaker 3: with warmer temperatures, little lower humidities, a little bit of
Speaker 3: wind there, we're gonna see a wind shift today also,
Speaker 3: So that kind of complicates things when we start talking
Speaker 3: about wild land fires. So we're going to be on
Speaker 3: the watch for that today.
Speaker 1: Well, Melissa, you got a good night's sleep, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well good.
Speaker 2: Because you might be busy leader, you ready to go.
Speaker 1: Also, it brings rain. We had two three inches of
Speaker 1: rain that really didn't do too much for our fire stuff.
Speaker 3: No, and that's what you know. We've talked about this before.
Speaker 3: A lot of folks don't really understand that because I think, well,
Speaker 3: we got rain, or we had recent snowfall, so everything's
Speaker 3: moist and so the fire danger.
Speaker 2: Is not that high. Well, there's a lot of dead
Speaker 2: stuff still there a lot of dead stuff there.
Speaker 3: And so you get these these winds, these these breezes
Speaker 3: that we have in the springtime, it dries that dormant
Speaker 3: vegetation out on top.
Speaker 2: It may be muddy underneath.
Speaker 3: With that, that dry vegetation on top will readily burn.
Speaker 3: So it's it's good fuel for those wild land fires.
Speaker 1: Little boyant, Well with the rain, sometimes we get floods,
Speaker 1: and I understand that. John, you know a little bit
Speaker 1: about floodplains.
Speaker 2: Stuff like that. What you got going on here? Do
Speaker 2: you like to talk to us about it regards to that?
Speaker 4: So we luckily we haven't had any floodings recently. But
Speaker 4: so I'm the floodplane manager for the county. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: so I just my main My main job in that
Speaker 4: is to watch and regulate what people build within the
Speaker 4: regulatory okay, mapped floodplains.
Speaker 1: So you also take care of me nine to one one.
Speaker 1: That's out to be a little bit.
Speaker 2: Of a trip. Yeah, it's what goes into that.
Speaker 4: So I do all the nine one one addressing for
Speaker 4: unincorporated Washington County with the exclusive city of Bartsville. And
Speaker 4: but we're also working on a nine to one one
Speaker 4: grant in conjunction with the City of Bartlesville through the
Speaker 4: State of Oklahoma and to upgrade. Right now, we're in
Speaker 4: Enhance nine one one and we're going to upgrade into
Speaker 4: next generation nine one one, which has to do with
Speaker 4: call routing. If you call nine one one geolocating that
Speaker 4: phone and telling the dispatchers where exactly.
Speaker 2: You are, well, that's going to help out a lot.
Speaker 4: So we're in the process of getting all the MOUs
Speaker 4: and everything signed and submitted to the State of Oklahoma
Speaker 4: so we can move forward with this grant.
Speaker 1: A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away,
Speaker 1: trying to endure what to call a no compete clause.
Speaker 1: I wound up answering nine one one phones at a
Speaker 1: capcom at the county office in in Illinois, and by
Speaker 1: geo locating, you've taken five, ten, fifteen seconds away from
Speaker 1: the time of that call, and that could be critical.
Speaker 1: I'm getting a fire or a police or medical someplace.
Speaker 2: I mean, I just right there. That's incredible.
Speaker 3: Well, and this grant that John's been working on is
Speaker 3: really beneficial and critical for us because of the technology
Speaker 3: advances that we've seen in the fact that folks are using.
Speaker 3: We don't see very many landlines now.
Speaker 4: No, and that's that's another problem is is back several
Speaker 4: years ago, everybody had a landline in their house. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and it ran through AT and T and had an
Speaker 4: address and location associated with that landline. Now everybody's going mobile.
Speaker 4: Nobody has landlines anymore unless you're a place of business
Speaker 4: for the most part. Yeah, And so with that, it'll
Speaker 4: help with your cellular phone calls and locating more precise
Speaker 4: location of where that cell phone is. Instead of well
Speaker 4: they're in between this tower and this tower. Now it'll
Speaker 4: it'll it'll narrow that gap and actually locates you a
Speaker 4: little better, you know, because there's people that will call
Speaker 4: nine one one that maybe in respiratory to stress and
Speaker 4: might not be able to get everything out that they
Speaker 4: need to get out. So stuff like this will help
Speaker 4: locate these people a little bit faster.
Speaker 1: Well, it's better than between this tower and that tower
Speaker 1: and look for the next thing smoking or somebody else.
Speaker 1: Good gravy. Uh, Melissa, I understand. You guys are getting
Speaker 1: some new digs.
Speaker 2: Have you been in the we are?
Speaker 5: We are? We were just out there yesterday. We're really
Speaker 5: excited about that. This has been a project years in
Speaker 5: the making, at least four years in the making of
Speaker 5: actual work on this project of our new facility out
Speaker 5: on Bison Road. A little bit more room, a lot
Speaker 5: more room, a lot more room, a lot more room.
Speaker 5: We have been really fortunate with the facility that we
Speaker 5: have currently originally being donated by Walmart and now DSR,
Speaker 5: but we've outgrown that a long time ago. So this
Speaker 5: is this is a really good thing for the community
Speaker 5: as a whole to have this facility.
Speaker 1: I began work here about six years ago and that
Speaker 1: was my first venture over there with Garrett Giles, and
Speaker 1: we walked in, I'm like, oh, my gosh, Carrie's looking
Speaker 1: at us, and we fit one more extra person in here,
Speaker 1: We're going to be in trouble.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: I was really quite surprised in that big building. Just
Speaker 1: a slipper, I mean, generously given to you to use,
Speaker 1: but still, wow, I don't know how you guys functioned
Speaker 1: in there for so long and girls, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, and it's been a good home for us. It
Speaker 3: provided us with what we needed, huh. But as Melissa said,
Speaker 3: we've we've definitely outgrown that. And and again, you know,
Speaker 3: same way with the technology on the on the next
Speaker 3: gen nine or one, the technologies that we use or
Speaker 3: communications for severe weather operations, any other type of emergency
Speaker 3: or disaster has also expanded increased and we're struggling to
Speaker 3: keep up with that in our current facility. So this
Speaker 3: new facility will give us the abilities, the capabilities that
Speaker 3: we need with that newer technology to continue to provide
Speaker 3: for the citizens.
Speaker 2: Of Washington County.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get back to mister Mosley John, what
Speaker 1: are folks going to notice? Are you going to be
Speaker 1: contacting people when we go through this, you know, upgrade
Speaker 1: people with with phones residents? What can we expect as
Speaker 1: Joe and Jane average.
Speaker 4: There room won't be anything that you'll necessarily notice in
Speaker 4: the end. Oh good, it's all said and done, there
Speaker 4: will be You won't have to do nothing. It'll all
Speaker 4: take care of itself, all right. So it'll all be
Speaker 4: done within the dispatch center here in Martinsville. Oh so,
Speaker 4: all that i S data, we're getting it all remediated
Speaker 4: and fixed and making sure everything's right and there's address
Speaker 4: points are on the right houses associated with the right address.
Speaker 4: And then all that data will be submitted to the
Speaker 4: state nine one one to a repository, and then our
Speaker 4: nine one one center will be able to pull all
Speaker 4: that data into their system from the state repository.
Speaker 3: And that was a great deal about this grant And
Speaker 3: the reason that we wanted to take advantage is because
Speaker 3: it'll be seamless for the general public.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And the people that will really notice the difference will
Speaker 3: be the dispatchers down at the nine one one center
Speaker 3: and the responders because they'll be able to get access
Speaker 3: to that information to find those those victims, those patients
Speaker 3: whatever easier and more readily. But the general public themselves,
Speaker 3: it'll be seamless to them.
Speaker 1: Wow, I got like that here I'm thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to get a knock from somebody, plumber brush man. No,
Speaker 1: it's not only kidding, only kidding and kidding anyway, you
Speaker 1: do a great job here in our community, and we
Speaker 1: really thank you. A lot of folks wonder, well, what
Speaker 1: constitutes an emergency? And I'm going to go to Melissa
Speaker 1: on this because it seems like I always get a
Speaker 1: hold of you and bad thing going on because he's
Speaker 1: out there, you know, running into places on fire.
Speaker 2: Yes he is. So what constitutes an emergency? I mean
Speaker 2: that's different for everybody.
Speaker 5: What's an emergency to me may not be an emergency
Speaker 5: to you, and vice versa. So, but as far as
Speaker 5: in our line of work, it's everything from lost people
Speaker 5: to weather, to fires, to car accidents, gas leaks.
Speaker 2: What else have we done?
Speaker 5: Tornadoes, earthquakes, I don't. I mean just the list keeps
Speaker 5: growing every year of the kinds of things that that
Speaker 5: we were spawn too.
Speaker 3: Well, it's just like a few years ago we added
Speaker 3: the pandemic. That was something we hadn't really had on
Speaker 3: our list previously.
Speaker 2: So nobody wants to say that.
Speaker 3: That list seems to grow, But anything that has a
Speaker 3: significant impact to the community. Okay, then that's that's what we're.
Speaker 1: Focused on, because you know, Carrie, I run into you
Speaker 1: in different things, whether it's directing traffic for an accident
Speaker 1: or if there's a wildfire, and a variety of other things.
Speaker 1: It just seems like it's kind of an omnibus thing.
Speaker 1: It's one big umbrella. You know, if it's going wrong,
Speaker 1: chances are you're gonna see white cars out there.
Speaker 5: If we can help support it in any way and
Speaker 5: coordinate resources will be there.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, great, Now with the new building, is that
Speaker 1: going to help you with your coordination?
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, I just saw that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so many different ways, not just our our daily
Speaker 3: operations or or even our responses for severe weather or
Speaker 3: flooding or whatever that might be, but even in the
Speaker 3: preparation for that training of area responders.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: That's always something we've kind of struggled with, is finding
Speaker 3: facilities that could hold a certain number of people to
Speaker 3: do different types of training. Well, we'll have our own
Speaker 3: training room out there in the facility now where we
Speaker 3: can seat up to eighty people at a time to
Speaker 3: do training. So essentially it'll be a regional training center,
Speaker 3: if you will. Also and having some of the planning
Speaker 3: meetings that we have. You've been to our LPC meetings
Speaker 3: and some of those. It gives us a lot more space,
Speaker 3: better facilities to do those types of things, which is
Speaker 3: how we develop our plans to respond to these disasters.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the new facility is going to help in
Speaker 3: so many different ways. The equipment stuff that we have currently,
Speaker 3: we have three different buildings or facilities around the community
Speaker 3: where our equipment is stored. This will put all of
Speaker 3: that equipment under one roof in one location.
Speaker 5: And it was designed with the community in mind for sure,
Speaker 5: because we can use this facility to distribute good goods
Speaker 5: or supplies and things like that. We learned during the
Speaker 5: pandemic when we needed to do test pods and vaccination
Speaker 5: pods and things like that, there wasn't really good facilities
Speaker 5: around here to get lots of people through. We'll be
Speaker 5: able to do that at our facility.
Speaker 2: Great.
Speaker 1: Great, Now this is built kind of large because I
Speaker 1: think we all know Martinville is about to grow and
Speaker 1: Washington County is about to grow, So this gave you
Speaker 1: some wiggle room to grow.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, and when we designed this facility we tried
Speaker 3: to keep that in mind and look towards the future,
Speaker 3: so it is designed for the future as well.
Speaker 2: Is there anything I missed?
Speaker 1: The reason why it is because I could talk to
Speaker 1: you guys, I really could, because I've got like a
Speaker 1: million questions. But we'll get to them when we get
Speaker 1: to them. Well, thank you all for coming in. Thanks
Speaker 1: for taking a good chunk out of your morning to
Speaker 1: be with us here on the radio and TV.
Speaker 3: We appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Take care now, folks.