New county program offers radios to Sonoma Springs residents in effort to boost emergency communications

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In a bid to close one of the most persistent gaps in disaster preparedness, Sonoma County’s Department of Emergency Management is rolling out a program to equip residents in the Sonoma Springs area with handheld radios and training to keep communication lines open when cell networks fail.

The effort, funded through a $70,000 federal Urban Area Security Initiative grant, is in its second year of a three-year project focused on making the Springs community more resilient to earthquakes, floods and wildfires.

“Across all threats, communications is always a gap,” said Nancy Brown, an emergency management specialist with DEM, in a presentation to the Springs Municipal Advisory Council on Wednesday. “When the cell tower is disrupted, that’s really the worst of all scenarios.”

The program will supply up to 175 General Mobile Radio Service units — a mid-range option between walkie-talkies and ham radios — to residents who complete training sessions in English or Spanish. The classes will cover operating procedures, legal requirements, and best practices to avoid interfering with emergency responders.

Grant funds will also cover the $35 licensing fee for each participant, and organizers hope to establish a local GMRS users group in the Springs. The goal, Brown said, is to build a network that can connect neighborhoods to one another – and to countywide radio operators – during outages.

“That’s what resiliency is all about, you have to have a backup plan,” Brown said. “No matter what happens, you have something that will work.”

Another piece of the project aims to create a “hub” where residents can connect their cell phones to send messages and receive emergency updates when towers are down. While the current grant won’t fully fund the hub’s construction, it includes expert help to pursue additional financing.

The program is designed specifically for Springs residents who live in evacuation zone 6E2, an area that is at risk of catastrophic wildfire, but officials emphasized that anyone can attend the classes while supplies last.

“That doesn’t mean that if you don’t live in that zone, that you can’t not go to the classes or take the training,” said Maricarmen Reyes, chair of the Springs Municipal Advisory Council and a member of the community group planning the program. “We want to clarify that that anyone’s welcome.”

The county is partnering with the North Bay Communications Cooperative and its Auxiliary Communications System, an amateur radio network with 250 members, to coordinate frequencies and integrate the new GMRS users into the broader emergency communications system.

Officials haven’t set an exact date or time for the training classes, but are planning for sometime during the third week of October.

Sign-up information will be announced through socoemergency.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Isabel Beer at 707-933-2734 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @IsabelSongBeer