MANSFIELD — Technology, old and new, was the word of the day on Tuesday for the Richland County Board of Commissioners.
During an hour-long meeting, the three-member panel praised the efforts of local HAM radio operators, announced cell phone coverage was nearly ready in Lucas and heard that “virtual physical therapy” sessions may soon be available to county employees.
Commissioners proclaimed June 18 to 24 as “Amateur Radio Week” meeting with Danny Bailey and Duane Meadows, officers with the Intercity Amateur Radio Club, an organization of HAM radio operators.
For those wondering where HAM came from, it’s an acronym first applied in 1908, a play on the names of the operators of the first amateur wireless station — Albert Hyman, Bob Almy and Poogie Murray of the Harvard Radio Club.
There are 478 local, licensed amateur radio operators in Richland County, all of whom donate their communication services for free during emergencies and events.
Bailey said one key service by club members is performed during weather emergencies
“We do a lot of the weather stuff, SkyWarn program. We’re the ones who kind of watch the weather a lot for Richland County,” Bailey said. “We have spotters. Whenever you hear a severe thunderstorm warning go out, our guys will go out and look and watch in case we see a funnel cloud or anything.
“(The National Weather Service office in) Cleveland loves that because they can’t see a lot down here on the radar. So we help pick that up, that end of it.”
Bailey, who recently attended the Richland County EMA tabletop emergency exercise, said club members are also ready to help with communications during other times, as well.
“We can help the EMA if they ever have need for radio communications. They send a certain team out or something like that and they need radio communications or different things. We can even back up the communications for law enforcement, he noted.
“We can go in because we have our own equipment.”
After that session, Commissioner Tony Vero said it appeared wireless cell phone service would soon be operational in Lucas.
Richland County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jim Sweat told Vero Monday that Verizon Wireless planned to have its equipment installed on the new 300-foot public safety communications tower by mid-to-late August.
Vero and others had been hopeful the work would be complete by October on the $671,500 Multi-Agency Radio Communications System site at 300 S. Union St.
During a meeting in April, Vero praised Sweat, who has helped lead a digital communications conversion and upgrade throughout the county that began four years ago.
Vero said in April the tower has already made a difference for law enforcement and emergency services in Lucas and the southeastern part of the county.
“We’ve heard from local firefighters and emergency personnel in that area. It has made a significant difference. I don’t wanna speak for all of them, but the feedback we have received has been unanimously positive,” Vero said then.
The last half of the meeting was with County Employee Benefits Consortium of Ohio senior benefits analyst Wendy Dillingham.
CEBCO is a 46-county pooled health insurance program that Richland County joined in 2017.
Dillingham provided commissioners with an update from the first quarter, which largely revealed the insurance program was paying out more in benefits than it’s taking in through premiums.
She said the costs are being seen throughout the CEBCO program.
“It isn’t just Richland County that is experiencing it overall, everybody is. We still are looking at this as somewhat of a bounce back from the (COVID-19) pandemic,” Dillingham said.
“Maybe (there was) some delay of services during that period of time that are now taking place. We hope that we’re kind of at the tail end of that, of those services, during a time when all non-emergency outpatient services were put on hold.”
She told commissioners CEBCO has been testing a “virtual physical therapy” program that county employees will soon be able to enroll in as part of the county’s wellness program. Dillingham said employees enrolling will receive a kit, including an iPad, a stand to place it on, along with electrodes and bands.
“They tell you the position you need to be in and based on how you answered questions, they’re going to set up exercises.
“You’re going to have a physical therapist that you’re gonna be working with who’s going to reach out to you and you’re going to be either talking to them (via) Facetime on your phone or your laptop, your tablet and they will be texting you periodically,” Dillingham said.
She said CEBCO pursued the option because it found muscular/skeletal problems are always among the top five diagnoses in the 46 counties it serves.
“It can be back pain, knee pain, hip pain, anything muscular (or) skeletal. So we decided this might be a really great program to offer,” she said.
