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Grant buys emergency command vehicle
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by LAURA BUCK
Calvert County Board of County Commissioners President Wilson Parran, left, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md,. 5th) watch a presentation by Sheriff Mike Evans during the unveiling of a new Mobile Command Vehicle on Monday.
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A true giant came to the Calvert County Sheriff's Office on Monday afternoon. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) was there, too.
"This is a vehicle available for all public safety in Southern Maryland," Hoyer said of the new mobile command vehicle, purchased with $752,000 in funding secured by Hoyer in the fiscal year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, according to his spokeswoman Stephanie Lundberg.
Though the vehicle will be headquartered at the Calvert County Sheriff's Office's maintenance department, Hoyer said that it was purchased for Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties.
"That's a principal part of government: public safety … this vehicle is critically important from a federal perspective to a county perspective," he said.
Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans (R) explained that the mobile command vehicle is meant for emergencies that could range anywhere from a neighborhood power outage to a hurricane or tornado.
"The uses are endless … [but] we hope we won't have to use it," said Evans, who said at the vehicle's unavailing that Lt. Col. Thomas Hejl initially applied for the grant to buy the vehicle.
Calvert County Commissioners President Wilson Parran (D), Commissioners Linda Kelley (R), Susan Shaw (R) and Barbara Stinnett (D) and Chesapeake Beach Mayor Bruce Wahl were all present at the unveiling. "This could save a lot of life and a lot of time," said Parran.
According to Lt. Bobby Jones, about 40 people could fit into the Mobile Command Vehicle, though he joked, "As you know, cops tend to be loud so the fewer people, the better."
Jones led tours through the vehicle and described some of its features including a 20KW generator; five forward workstations; an eight-person conference table; two 42-inch LCD monitors with SMART podium; a TracStar satellite system and fax machine.
"We don't have to deploy the satellite as long as the Verizon or Sprint [networks are] working," Jones said.
Lt. Ricky Thomas added that the entire vehicle is "a WiFi hotspot" and that "I can give you an IP address and you can pick up live streaming video from the truck."
Thomas also said that because of the value of the mobile command vehicle, "We would make this a cold zone, away from the actual action because we don't want this to become involved."
