SJC Emergency Management Agency moves to new location

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind --- St. Joseph County’s Emergency Management Agency that works to keep residents safe when bad weather or other emergency situations arise, moved on up, from the basement of the central fire station on Michigan Street to right across from the county city building downtown.

“They had been in the basement of the fire station on Michigan street, that lease expired so they moved into the old historic preservation. This is a good thing for St. Joe County, they’ll have more collaboration with everybody,” said St. Joseph County Commissioner Derek Dieter of District two.

Commissioner Dieter joined the emergency management agency’s director John Antonucci and his team on Wednesday for a ribbon cutting at their new office space along with unveiling some new technology.

“These are seemingly normal cellphones but they are capable of transmitting on the 800-megahertz emergency system so that gives key employees the ability to be able to communicate with county police, state police, local police, all the first responding departments,” said Antonucci.

Emergency agencies like these have been around since 2001 following the 9-11 terror attacks.

Antonucci said the new space and tools will not only help equip them for major emergencies but also events like last week’s storm of the season.

“We just kept making decisions based on what was happening out there. Those decisions include closing county offices trying to get people home ahead of the evening commute plus the inclement weather,” added Antonucci.

The agency said they have also received thousands of dollars in funding amid the pandemic along with funding for county-wide upgrades to technology county like converting sirens to run without batteries.

Antonucci said they expect to receive more funding this year to complete the project.