The Medina County Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, gave a very interesting and informative presentation at our May 18th meeting. The presentation included the mission of the Medina County EMA along with a recruiting effort for the newly formed communications unit as well as the Medina County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
Presenters were Ben Nau, KE8BJA, Emergency Management Specialist with the Medina county EMA, and program manager for the communications unit, Mathew Sturgeon, KD8NGT, Emergency Management Specialist with the EMA, and program manager for the CERT team and David Rickon, NF8O, Communications Unit Leader, a volunteer with the EMA. The presentation included pictures of the various amateur radio and public safety communications equipment in the EMA radio room along with various communications capabilities (HF, SHARES, Winlink, Digital-Fldigi), the Medina county mobile command vehicle outfitted with various public safety, amateur radio equipment and other communications capabilities.
The communications unit and CERT volunteers have participated in various county exercises over the past few years as well as activation during the 2016 Republican National Convention. The CERT presentation covered the inception of the CERT team concept, training and mission of CERT within Medina county. Anyone interested in more information, attending a future meeting or joining either the communications unit or CERT team can contact Ben Nau, at Medina County EMA , office 330-722- 9240, email bnau@medinaco.org.