Emergency commissioners discuss school transportation

    The Emergency Management Commission discussed its emergency support function at its regular meeting Wednesday. Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Larry Smith said the purpose of the emergency support function is to provide transportation support in the event of an emergency.

    ?If we have bad weather and we have to close certain roads, we need to be able to communicate,? said Smith.

    The portion of the emergency support function that was debated was what entities should be included among the support agencies. A few schools in the county are listed as support agencies, such as Washington, Mid-Prairie and Highland schools. Karen Dennler, the representative from Crawfordsville, inquired into why WACO school was not listed among the support agencies given the WACO Elementary School is in Crawfordsville, in Washington County. Dennler said she was worried that WACO students would be left out of the communications loop in an emergency. 

    ?I don?t want the southern part of the county to be bare,? said Dennler.

    Smith said that the same issue applies to the Keota School District, which receives students from Washington County. 

    ?I?ll see how other counties handle it when it comes to school districts at the edge of their county,? said Smith. ?I need to find the criteria from the state and from the other counties to see if we?re supposed to include the primary part of the school district, like the business offices and the actual schools, or if we base it on service territory. For instance, WACO is actually in Henry County, and Highland extends into Louisa County. Part of Mid-Prairie goes into Iowa County. I need to see if the Iowa County emergency coordinator is naming Mid-Prairie in his plan.?

For more, see our July 15 print edition.