La Salle County to buy $757,635 command vehicle for EMA-coordinated responses

The La Salle County Board approved a $757,635 bid for a command vehicle for the Emergency Management Agency to coordinate a response.

In July, the La Salle County Board approved seeking bids for an EMA command vehicle. At that time, EMA director Fred Moore presented the board with some of the 13 appeals he’d received from first-responders clamoring for a vehicle to centralize multi-agency responses. Moore said the unit would be stored at La Salle County’s government complex and would be dispatched as needed.

“Keeping in mind that some incidents last hours, days. How long was the Westclox fire?” Moore asked.

“It was two months,” answered Peru Fire Chief Jeff King, who lent his support to the project.

Moore said the command vehicle would be paid for with the public safety tax, not with property taxes.