Okanogan County Sheriff Office has recently installed new radio equipment on Flagg Mountain and Little Buck radio sites public safety use.

They are online and working, the coverage is superb, even beyond our greatest hopes. The Flagg site gives us coverage all the way up to Washington Pass, as well as the Lost River district near Mazama. Heretofore, we have never had radio coverage in these areas. The Little Buck footprint covers the entire Methow Valley floor, which, along with our existing McClure site, now gives us "triple" redundancy. Coming from only one repeater with battery backup, to three sites with generator/backup at two, is a major improvement which cannot be overstated from the standpoint of public safety and first responder communications.

Simply put, we could not have done this without partnering with the Washington State Department of Transportation and them being willing to let us come into these sites.

I really appreciate all of the work and effort that Emergency Manager Scott Miller and Communications Technician Walt Stalder did to get these radio sites installed. This completes our five year plan to upgrade and build-out the county radio system. With these last two installations we now have overlapping coverage in all areas of Okanogan County.