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New! Swiftwater Team Video
(You may want to turn down your volume before starting video.)
 Manning the Van - Rick Cochran works the radios inside the Sheriff's Communications van. His blue armband means he's a member of the Command Post staff. The communications center is the hub of any search, and the operators must be able stay cool under a barrage of messages.
 Incident Command Trailer - The Search and Rescue Incident Command trailer is shown off by Karen Meschi, past President of the El Dorado Search and Rescue Council (ESARC) The trailer is designed to support search managers on a typical 24 - 48 hour West Slope search. Its single large room provides ample desk space for the Incident Command System staff, as well as storage for lights, maps, generators, radios, computers, and more.
Its computer system is designed to stand on its own, or to network with the Sheriff's comm van. The trailer was designed by a committee of ESARC members and paid for with ESARC-raised funds. Delivered bare, the trailer received countless hours of volunteer labor during its outfitting. On the outside, the ESARC logo and the lettering were done by Western Sign of Placerville.
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 Communications Van - The Sheriff's new Communications van was built from the ground up to be a mobile emergency command post. Deputy Scott Stewart of the Office of Emergency Services headed up the project from conception to delivery. Scott's design includes a communications center, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a conference room that can be walled off for privacy. Electronics include radios, phones, televisions and VCRs, computers, a generator, and more. The small gray pipe sticking up from the rear is actually an electrically raised 30-foot antenna tower.
Built on a 1999 Freightliner chassis by the Mattman Company of San Diego, California, the van sports a Cummins turbocharged diesel engine. Scott made sure that taxpayers got a bargain — drug seizure money paid for $135,000 of the $141,000 total cost.
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 Seat of Power - Facing forward (with the windshield blacked out*) shows how much equipment is at the driver's fingertips. Generator controls, circuit breakers, TV and VCR, rear view backup TV, cell phone, low and high-band VHF radios. In front of the passenger's seat are a laptop computer and (normally) a Garmin Street Pilot GPS. On back order: two extra large cup holders for those 64-ouncers.
*Warning! Remove windshield covers before driving vehicle.
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Coffee and Cogitation Station - Volunteer Karen Meschi grabs a cup of coffee in the galley in the rear, which doubles as a conference room. Like any other family, SAR members have serious discussions in the dining room, so the layout lets search managers watch TV news while sitting around (what else?) the kitchen table.
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Can't Stop Talking - Volunteers Paul Duer and Diane Palmer in the communications center (middle of the van). Designed to accommodate 4 dispatchers, the "comm" section has phones, computers and printers, as well as radios for virtually every agency in the County. In this picture, Paul hogs the mike (again) while Diane wonders when she's going to be able to talk.
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