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Castle Valley committee debates separating communications and power sections; discusses radio upgrades and local internet providers
Summary
Committee members recommended splitting power outages from communications in the hazard-mitigation plan, discussed local provider capabilities (Emery, Frontier, Royce's, Starlink), and raised the need to secure radio programming information and consider 800 MHz interoperability.
Members of the Castle Valley Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee on March 25 agreed to separate "power outages" and "communications" into distinct sections of the draft hazard-mitigation plan and discussed several technical and operational changes the town could pursue to strengthen emergency communications.
Mason Kemp, mitigation planning leader with the Utah Department of Emergency Management, and Nathan (committee participant) advised the committee to make the qualitative rankings in the plan ("low/medium/high") consistent with a 1-to-5 numeric scale or to provide written definitions so reviewers and grant reviewers understand what those rankings mean.
Committee members described the current local communications landscape: multiple internet service providers (Emery, Frontier), wireless providers referenced as "Royce's," satellite services (Starlink, Hughes), and cell boosters and user-owned satellite terminals. They noted the practical differences between internal communications (town operations and responder coordination) and external communications to county dispatch and outside agencies.
A recurring operational concern was access to radio-programming data. Committee members said the town uses locally programmed radios for internal communication but that a contractor who originally provisioned the radios, Gary Wilson, has reduced his commercial role. "This information belongs to the town," a committee member said, urging staff to obtain programming and frequency details so the town can add or reprogram radios without relying on a single private vendor.
The group also discussed interoperability with county and state responder networks and potential future moves to 800-megahertz trunked systems used by some sheriff's offices. Members noted that acquiring compatible 800 MHz radios would be costly and that a phased approach (base-station upgrade, applying for licensing, grant applications) may be needed. The committee added a mitigation action to explore upgrading at least one base station to ensure the town can reach dispatch and other external agencies.
Committee participants discussed smaller, lower-cost preparedness actions for residents during power or communications outages, including recommending household UPS devices or portable "solar generator" power banks to keep routers and phones charged; the committee suggested including such recommendations in the plan's power section.
Next steps: staff will separate the communications and power sections in the plan draft, add a defined ranking scale for feasibility/probability, attempt to retrieve radio-programming records or secure vendor cooperation, and enumerate mitigation actions for internal and resident-facing communications options (including trial mesh/LoRa networks and a possible mesh-node pilot). The committee deferred formal procurement decisions to future meetings and to any grant-application process.
