T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Representatives of all of the Belmont County departments and units that have joined forces for the Belmont County Rescue Task Force celebrate receipt of a $75,000 grant.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The new Belmont County Rescue Task Force received a $75,000 grant from the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

The grant will go toward a trailer, equipment, supplies, tents, etc., for the newly formed task force and will be stored by the Cumberland Trail Fire District.

“I applaud the initiative to have the forethought to gather up the equipment that would be needed in a catastrophic event,” Ohio Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marietta, said. “Hopefully we never have to use it, but at least we’ll have the equipment.”

He added that Belmont County is a rural area, which can make it more difficult for emergency response vehicles to respond quickly.

“Our districts are very rural by nature. The representatives have 100,000 constituents and senators have about 350,000 constituents. So, in order for me to get my 350,000 constituents, it’s 10 counties. That’s how rural it is,” Chavez said. “Now, it’s beautiful, and we love it. We love to have the space that’s spread out. However, in unglaciated Ohio. It’s just harder to get around.”

He added that it could take an hour and 20 minutes to go 30 miles in the hilly region, whereas in flat parts of Ohio, you could be there in 20-30 minutes.

“That’s why it’s so important to have centralized response teams to where you can get the people and the equipment to these areas as quickly as possible,” Chavez said. “Support from larger communities is going to take a while to get there.”

Muskingum County Emergency Management and Local Emergency Planning Committee Office of Homeland Security Director Jeff Jadwin said every item that will be purchased through the grant will need to be put out for bids due to the state requiring everything over $10,000 go out to bid before being purchased.

“One individual piece of equipment will be over that $10,000, so we’ve got to make sure that we abide by the rules and submit everything to the state,” Jadwin said.

He added that everything purchased is required to be the cheapest version of the item.

“Everything’s got to be totally generic. We can’t say, ‘I want Campbell’s Soup.’ It’s got to be, ‘I want tomato soup,'” he said. “Every piece of equipment has got to be a generic name. So, it’ll be a process, but it’s what I do every year with the grants.”

Jadwin played a crucial role in securing the grant funding for the task force. He approached Ohio EMA to secure the grant once he was made aware that the task force needed funding and was able to secure the $75,000.

Cumberland Trail Fire District Chief Tim Hall said the Ohio Department of Public Safety mandated that a rescue task force be a part of all emergency medical service members’ initial credentialing to get certification.

“Here locally, at Cumberland Trail, we were always training with St. Clairsville PD and Belmont County Sheriff’s Office, and always waiting for a physical building — whether it be a school or a large complex — to be cleared before we’d make entry and start performing patient care,” Hall said.

He added that now that the task force will be able to have the right equipment and training, including ballistic vests and helmets, his crew members will be able to marry themselves to law enforcement when entering an active shooting situation.

“We can start rendering care more quickly and more efficiently to students and staff or patrons at a large complex moving forward,” Hall said. “Therefore having better outcomes and stopping those injuries that can be saved a lot sooner, rather than us being outside of the building waiting for it to be completely cleared and safe before making entry.”

He added that, working through the East Central Ohio Educational Resource Center, each of Belmont County’s seven public school districts chipped in to donate $20,000, which covered the cost of 12 ballistic vests and helmets as well as throw bag water rescue devices to be used by law enforcement and EMS, to the task force.

St. Clairsville Police Chief Matt Arbenz said the goal is to get all Belmont County emergency response units and stations to be on the same page with the task force. He said that if the task force is needed in St. Clairsville, his department would be prepared due to the task force training, but the additional units coming to render support would also need to be trained the same way.

“This is going to save lives,” Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack said.

He added that he believes the task force should have been started a long time ago, but he is glad that all of the units and departments are working together now to form a task force that will have a rapid response capability if it were ever to be needed.