EMA unveils command post, plans Starlink backup after county phone outage

LaSalle County’s Emergency Management Agency reported acquisition of a mobile command post and a plan to add satellite internet redundancy after a recent phone outage that temporarily disrupted dispatch communications.

EMA lead Fred Moore said the command post is in county garage storage and an open house is scheduled March 9. He described planning for a county nuclear exercise — a pre‑exercise dry run slated for June and a fully graded exercise in July — and said county staff would participate with FEMA and the state.

Moore recounted a recent multi‑agency phone outage that affected several dispatch centers and said the county will equip the command post with Starlink satellite hardware at an estimated equipment cost of about $2,000 and a standby subscription that he described as roughly $5 per month (with active months billed at roughly $65). He framed Starlink as a redundancy to FirstNet/Starcom radio resources and said installation had been added as a change order while the bus was being outfitted; Moore said existing leftover funds in the command post purchase would cover the hardware cost.

Moore said he has already placed the command post on a schedule for demonstrations and will coordinate training with dispatch partners. The committee approved moving forward with the command post and endorsed installing the Starlink redundancy using the available line‑item funds.