Wells County Headlines: EMA Radio Purchase, Community Corrections Updates

Wells County's Emergency Management Agency Director John Petro went before the Wells County Council with a specific ask: $36,411.05 to replace and expand the agency's radio fleet, a purchase the county had been weighing as gaps in emergency communication hardware became harder to ignore.

The appropriation, if approved, would cover five new radios distributed across the agency's most critical positions. Two would go to the director and deputy director, one would be stationed at the EMA office, and two additional units would fill out the department's operational capacity. The price tag works out to roughly $7,200 per radio on average, reflecting the cost of equipment built to function when standard cellular and internet infrastructure fails.

Petro framed the request to the council as a necessary investment rather than a discretionary upgrade, making the case that emergency response coordination depends on hardware that holds up under pressure. The Wells County EMA also maintains a RACES amateur radio team, led by Deputy Director Mike Dewey, which provides backup communications through licensed ham radio frequencies when conventional systems go down.

Separately, the Wells County Community Corrections board moved to keep an existing vacancy open rather than appoint from current candidates, opting instead to solicit a fresh round of applicants. The board serves an oversight role for the county's community corrections program, which uses alternatives to incarceration including home detention and electronic monitoring. Anyone interested in serving on the board is encouraged to apply.

A public forum tied to the county's master planning process was also on the agenda. A rough draft of the master plan had circulated in March, and the scheduled forum gives residents the opportunity to weigh in before the plan advances further toward adoption.