The Vermillion County council approved funding this meeting for two measures aimed at strengthening emergency response communications and equipment.

The council approved an additional $40,000 from the E‑911 fund to buy up to about 80 LTE handheld radios intended as a relatively inexpensive backup to the county's 800 MHz radio system. EMA and emergency staff explained the LTE radios operate "off of cell towers" and create private talk groups that can be used if the primary 800 MHz system is compromised; the radios would be distributed among fire departments, the sheriff's office and county highway crews. One presenter described the devices as "relatively inexpensive" compared with repeater upgrades.

The motion to approve the E‑911 purchase was made by Mister Weir and seconded by Mister Summerville and carried by voice vote.

Separately, the council approved a $25,000 additional appropriation from fund 9103 to replace aging automated external defibrillators (AEDs) used by law enforcement and other county responders. EMA staff said the county received a $10,000 grant from Apex Solar toward the project and that Duke Energy has given a verbal promise and email commitment to fund replacement of fire department AEDs next year. The new AEDs will use batteries that are less expensive to replace and will match ambulance crews' units for interoperability.

Both measures passed by voice vote. There was discussion of equipment counts (roughly five handheld radios per fire department, 80 radios total) and a $50 activation fee per radio identified for some devices.