Wildhorse Grant to assist with Union County Search and Rescue Project

By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Friday, September 27th, 2024 in Northeastern Oregon News Northeastern Oregon Top Stories

UNION COUNTY – Recently, Union County Search and Rescue was announced as one of many recipients of a Wildhorse Foundation Grant. The grant, in the amount of $6,000, was noted for the “Multipurpose Operations Room, inside the Union County Search and Rescue (UCSAR) Building. Union County Emergency Manager Nick Vora explained what the funds would be used for and the overall project.

“This project is phase 3 of a 3-phase project. This phase will involve the construction of a heated and cooled 12’x 24’ electronics storage and SAR operations room within our equipment building. The room will be insulated, sheeted inside and out with plywood, wired with electrical outlets and have a full loft deck for storage above to organize and store equipment. The room would also have a mini-split ac/heat unit installed. This feature will be critical to allow us to dry equipment after missions in the winter and provide a heated and cooled location for storage of sensitive electronics with batteries that are damaged by temperature extremes. Other much-needed uses for this space will be as an operations room (with computer, printer, and desk) to direct emergency responses and conduct meetings and training. It would also house extra tables and chairs which would be used for training sessions of other agencies, members of the public, and the general membership.

Union County SAR currently has to store battery-powered equipment in a building several miles away, due to the extreme hot and cold temperatures encountered inside the uninsulated equipment building. Missions frequently have to be coordinated from the sheriff’s office several miles away due to the lack of a SAR operations room. Combined, this leads to substantial problems and delays (up to 20 minutes) surrounding coordination of responders responding to and from multiple different locations.

The citizens and visitors to Union County and surrounding areas in northeast Oregon will directly benefit from enhanced and more efficient search and rescue responses. UCSAR is the primary agency which provides search and rescue services to any person physically located (or presumed to be) within Union County, and we also provide frequent mutual aid (nearly 50% of our annual responses) to neighboring jurisdictions such as CTUIR lands, Umatilla, Baker, and other nearby counties.

This room will reduce taxpayer cost by prolonging the life of expensive electronics and battery-powered equipment due to the temperature and moisture control provided by a mini-split heater/ac unit. It will also give UCSAR members a standardized, central location for deployment, reducing communication and confusion caused by equipment stored in multiple locations and use of off-site operations rooms. This will all lead to faster, more organized and efficient responses, and ultimately improved outcomes for the people we serve.”

Keep current on Union County Search and Rescue at https://www.facebook.com/UnionCoSAR