PORT ANGELES — A massive project to upgrade emergency communications on the Olympic Peninsula is already capturing the attention of agencies around the country, a week after Clallam County received a $5.8 million federal grant for the job.
“They’re just kind of amazed at the cooperation of this county, of this peninsula,” Sheriff Joe Martin said Thursday morning during the first meeting of project participants since the county obtained the grant.
The Olympic Public Safety Communications Alliance Network project, dubbed OPS-CAN, will complete a digital backbone of microwave and fiber around the entire Olympic Peninsula to significantly increase and improve radio communications.
Forty-one county, state, tribal and federal agencies, plus the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, have signed on to take part in building the backbone.
The Department of Homeland Security last week announced the award of a $5,765,100 interoperability communication grant to Clallam County for one-year project.
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The rest of the story appears in Tuesday’s Peninsula Daily News.
