Emergency responders had their first chance Thursday to see Clark County’s new mobile disaster command center.

Local police and fire departments and elected officials inspected the adapted 34-foot RV made possible by a Department of Homeland Security grant.

“This is to use in situations where we know there will be a multiple-day response,” said Harold Plummer, director of the Clark County Emergency Planning Agency. “In worse cases, it will be where local, state and national officials can monitor and direct activities. We will also be able to use it to coordinate operations around major public events, like Thunder Over Louisville.”


The vehicle is a 2000 model year Bounder RV acquired for $61,000 from McGavick RV’s, said Plummer. He said a similar amount was paid to Premier Customization to revamp the interior into a state-of-the-art command and control center.

“They took out the bedroom and installed a two-operator radio control room,” Plummer said. “There’s a 40-foot radio mast that can be raised outside, permitting radio contact with all systems that might be responding to an emergency, like a hazardous materials spill, or any other situation that would mobilize county emergency responders.”

The interior was also modified to add a map and conference table in what was once living space and surveillance cameras outside that can be monitored from the communications room. Kitchen and bath facilities were kept.

“With a place to heat up some food or go to the bathroom, this allows us to be capable of directing a multi-day response, out of the weather, in a secure place,” Plummer said.

In addition to developing and submitting the paperwork for a federal grant to finance the equipment, Plummer said he “checked with every place I could find who had one” to develop protocols for its use.

The new mobile unit is not a first response vehicle, but is designed to provide an essential service in special situations, according to Plummer.

“This is not a response vehicle. But when we realize a situation will last a couple of days, or if the (Clark County) Commissioners declare an emergency situation, it will be ready to provide an on-site operations control center,” Plummer said. “It’s a fine piece of equipment. All of our emergency personnel will benefit from it in those special situations requiring an on-going coordinated response.”

Plummer said the RV is housed at the Clarksville Fire Department’s Station No. 2, but he hopes to ultimately move it to a more central location within the county.

“We are talking with the River Ridge Development Authority about using a building on their property,” he said. “It would be nice to have it in a spot that would allow us to mobilize it quickly to anywhere in the county.”