• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Gables to Have Its Own Radio Station: Soon, City Beautiful Residents Will Be Able to Tune in to Emergency Broadcasts As Coral Gables Prepares for This Year's Hurricane Season

Posted on: Sunday, 25 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Elaine De Valle, The Miami Herald

Jun. 25--In Coral Gables, government gets to residents via television, a website and newsletters sent by e-mail and with U.S. postage.

This year, the city hopes to take its message to the radio waves.

The Gables has applied for a license from the Federal Communications Commission for its own AM radio station.

It will get the call letters once it is approved, Gables spokeswoman Maria Rosa Higgins Fallon said.

"It could become the only way for us to communicate with residents if we get another hurricane season like last year's," Higgins said.

City workers plan to install a pole for an antenna at Ingraham Park, in the middle of the city, by the end of this week, Higgins said.

The pole needs to have electrical and telephone lines installed and will have a back-up generator in case the electricity fails, Higgins said. While the city started the process last month, BellSouth said last week that it wouldn't get a line to the pole for another two months.

"Hopefully, we won't get a hurricane before that," Higgins said.

Broadcasts will be conducted through a computer system housed in the city's emergency operations center, where taped announcements, tips and information can be entered.

But while the main reason for the station was to have a back-up communications system during power outages, the city also might use it the rest of the year, Higgins said.

"We can use it for announcements of activities, information about Coral Gables that we put in ENews -- what events are coming up, traffic detours," Higgins said.

City Manager David Brown envisions eventually transmitting the commission meetings over the radio.

"The sky is the limit," he said.

Last year's busy hurricane season provided some other lessons as well, and Brown said his staff will be better prepared for any storms this year.

They won't, for example, dump tree debris at the two sites where the city set up mulching operations last year. Because residents near the two locations complained, Brown said he likely will opt to have the debris sent out of the city whole.

"We don't want to further burden those same residents," Brown said. "But the further the debris is taken from city limits, the longer the turnaround time for those trucks, the longer it's going to take to get the debris off the streets."

The city also purchased some small generators to help keep the sanitary lift stations and the youth center operating in a power outage.

Brown also has expressed to county officials his desire to again set up a relief supply distribution point near Ponce de Leon Middle School.

City officials had three hurricane preparedness workshops to tell residents what to expect and how to get ready.

"You need to be able to be on your own for the first 72 hours," Fire Chief Richard Cook said.

But in addition, the city will be sending out a hurricane edition of its newsletter this week, Higgins said. At 16 pages, it's twice the size of the regular newsletters and full of Gables-specific information in Spanish and English.

"People need to save it," Higgins said. "We're not going to do it every year."

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:BLS,

Source: The Miami Herald

More News in this Category