Emily Andersen
The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
(TNS)
Mar. 28—CEDAR RAPIDS — Drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, have become increasingly popular tools used by police departments and fire departments in Eastern Iowa.
The drones are used for everything from tracking suspects or missing people to investigating bomb threats to helping firefighters see through smoke when fighting a fire.
The Cedar Rapids Fire Department and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, for example, used a drone earlier this month to pinpoint the location of a smoldering fire after a grain elevator exploded at the Archer Daniels Midland plant in southwest Cedar Rapids.
The Decorah Fire Department in northeast Iowa has been using drones since 2014 — longer than most departments in the state.
At the time, the city had to get a special certificate to own and pilot a drone because the Federal Aviation Administration hadn’t yet created the remote pilot certification process.
Now, all drone pilots must be certified under the FAA’s small unmanned aircraft systems rule (part 107). Drone pilots in law enforcement and public safety often have additional training on how to use the drones appropriately in their work.
River rescues
One reason Decorah firefighters wanted a drone was because of the numerous river rescue calls the department receives about people tubing and canoeing the Upper Iowa River, which lows through the city.
The drones have drastically decreased response times to those calls, according to Zach Kerndt, one of the department’s four drone pilots.
The drones “give us a much better idea of where people are, generally, because the information we receive from our dispatch center is very vague,” he said.
“The information we usually get is, they put in at this spot or this bridge, and they’re getting out at this bridge, and they’re somewhere in between.
“Having a drone really cuts down on the man-hours it takes to find someone because we can find them with the drone … and come up with a plan,” Kerndt said.
The department has two drones, which are used about 20 times a year, Kerndt said.
The drones also are used during fires and in missing person cases.
Since the drones have infrared cameras, they can see through smoke in a fire and can help firefighters on an aerial truck better aim water on what’s burning.
Linn County
In law enforcement, the devices are often used to help officers get a clear picture from above of a crime scene or crash scene.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has four drones — two large ones, two small ones — and nine trained pilots, according to Lt. Dave Beuter.
“It’s a real-time depiction of the scene, of the environment, whether there’s snow on the ground, whether the trees have leaves on them,” Beuter said.
“Especially with criminal investigations, it’s nice to have those images from the drone,” he said. “You can go up in the air, even like 10 feet up in the air, and do an angle shot back into whatever you’re looking at. It’s a lot better depiction of what’s seen than what just a simple photograph does.”
The Sheriff’s Office started using the drones in 2017, after Beuter and another lieutenant won a drone at a conference and then sought out training so they could use it.
The Iowa State Patrol started using drones in 2020, when it bought 10 drones. It now has 21 drones, which it primarily uses for crash reconstruction, according to the patrol’s public information officer
Cedar Rapids
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Posted: Mar 29, 2023
A West volunteer firefighter was killed in a crash Tuesday afternoon while working a motor vehicle fire scene. Two Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were also injured in the crash.
West Mayor Tommy Muska told WKTX that firefighter Edward Hykel, 60 was killed in the crash.
The accident happened on I-35 Northbound around 1 p.m. when firefighters were called to the scene of a vehicle fire. KCEN reports the firefighter and troopers were working traffic control when a semi struck a fire truck and patrol vehicles at the fire scene.
The West Fire Department has a history of tragedy. Ten first responders died in West in a fertilizer plant explosion and fire there in April of 2013. Hykel, a 16-year veteran of the department, was injured in that explosion. He also worked in the city Public Works and Water Department.
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Posted: Mar 29, 2023
Cameron Morsberger
The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
(TNS)
Mar. 27—WESTFORD — The $12.4 million proposal to demolish the vacant fire station and rebuild a municipal center in its place failed at Town Meeting Saturday.
Located at 51 Main St., the new building would have housed a number of local government offices, as well as an “improved meeting space” for town meetings that would accommodate five times the current meeting room’s capacity, Select Board Chair Andrea Peraner-Sweet said in an explanatory video played during the meeting. Peraner-Sweet said there is “no value in renovating the building.”
But the measure was widely opposed, with voters rejecting the article in a 162-241 vote.
Resident Heather Fitzpatrick spoke against the motion before the vote, stating that just a handful of employees who need extra space would be receiving it. There is also a school feasibility study whose results have yet to be published and may demonstrate that personnel can be relocated elsewhere.
“We should not be spending $12 million plus interest when it provides only a partial solution to our space needs,” Fitzpatrick said. “Facilities and IT would be housed in this building, and they work significantly in our schools. It makes sense to put them all together.”
Veterans Services, the facilities manager and sustainability coordinator, all of whom currently work out of the Millennium Building, as well as Community Wellness Coordinator Nicole Laviolette, who shares her office with the Animal Control officer, would all move to the new municipal building.
At a Special Town Meeting last fall, residents dismissed the article.
In the aforementioned video, Peraner-Sweet explained that those staffers need to have an “adequate workspace” with updated HVAC and security measures.
“The town has made a commitment to community well-being and mental health,” Peraner-Sweet said. “To fulfill that commitment, we need to provide the community wellness coordinator with a secure, private and closed-door office space where people who seek out her assistance can be assured that their confidentiality and privacy will be respected and maintained.”
Over four previous Town Meetings, residents have supported allocation of more than $900,000 to the needs study and design, Peraner-Sweet said.
Resident Megan Eckroth also voiced her opposition to the measure, stressing that Westford “needs to maintain the buildings we have in town and treasure those buildings.” The town’s nine school buildings need varying degrees of repair or simply don’t offer a “conducive” learning environment, Eckroth said.
“I do not think it is the right time to build a new building,” Eckroth said, “but rather to focus the attention on the buildings that we already have and what we claim to value with our town budget.”
On the meeting room front, resident Doug Burns questioned why meetings aren’t held in auditoriums at Westford Academy, Blanchard Middle School or the library. Burns said new rooms become “dead space that doesn’t get used.”
In response to a question, Select Board Vice Chair Tom Clay said the current meeting space at Town Hall will become an “auxiliary” space.
Terry Stader, a former Veterans Service officer, supported the article. With Afghan and Iraq veterans living in Westford, Stader expressed the need for increased veterans support.
“We need accessibility, we need the privacy,” Stader said. “Shared office space is not the solution that we have at the Millennium Building.”
The proposal also had the
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