By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Tucker County Emergency Management Director Kevin White addressed the Tucker County Commission on February 28th. White’s update included information on electronic signs ordered by the Office of Emergency Management. “Our signs are in,” White said. “Highway Safety delivered our portable signs for us.”
According to White, his department has completed a preliminary training on the signs, but plans to train others as well. White said the signs are simple to operate. “We did a quick crash course training on them,” White said. “I am going to try to set up some other trainings for other people also.”
One of the incidents used to secure the grant, according to White, was a hazardous spill that shut down Highway 219 for two weeks. White said his department waited for three days for signs to be delivered during the spill but had the County had the signs in house, they could have been placed in about an hour. According to White, the new signs will be able to be deployed wherever needed in case of future need. “They are going to be quite adequate for what we are going to be needing them for,” White said.
Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau asked if the County would need permission from the Department of Highways to place the signs along the roadways. White said that permission would need to be secured for non emergency use. “Lets say we were going to set them along 219 for whatever purpose other than an emergency situation, it would have to approved by DOH,” White said.
Rosenau said he would like to see the signs utilized to stop tractor trailer trucks from traveling dangerous roads in the County. Rosenau said he would like to get into contact with the DOH and start the approval process to use the signs to deter large trucks from traveling roads that are not safe for them to use. “Those are going to be utilized because it is an emergency,” Rosenau said. “I don’t want tractor trailers going down those roads.”
White said that the effectiveness of the signs will be affected by cold temperatures. According to White, the signs will encounter charging issues in winter. White also said the signs have a wind rating and will not be able to be used in high winds due to the potential for the sign to be tipped over and destroyed during excessive gusting. “We do have to be careful where we utilize them at, but they are available to use for whatever we need,” White said.
