New possibility for TEMA equipment

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - Tippecanoe County leaders are now weighing a new option for housing emergency management equipment, thanks to a concerned citizen.

At the council meeting, Tippecanoe County resident Dan Altepeter gave a presentation about what he thinks could be a temporary fix for housing Tippecanoe County Emergency Management Agency's (TEMA) equipment.

"Instead of building new buildings immediately, which may be required in the future, we have available the sheep barn at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, which is ideal warehousing space if utilized properly," said Altepeter.

Currently, nearly $2 million worth of TEMA equipment is sitting outside, uncovered.  He said his plan would protect the equipment and cost a lot less then previous proposals.  Altepeter's solution includes adding new garage doors to the sheep barn, which would cost less than $10,000. 

Emergency Management Director Mark Kirby has some concerns.

"If you look at the construction of this building, it has multiple pillars in here, which doesn't allow for any manuevering.  You do have a long aisleway here, but the items in the middle of the aisle... You're going to have to move multiple items out of the way to get to them," said Kirby.

When the fairgrounds were brought up in the past some council members were worried about a loss in revenue generated by the sheep barn if the equipment was moved there.  But fairgrounds staff said over the past five years the sheep barn has only generated only $800 for the County.

"For this particular building revenues are miniscul: $800 over the past 5 years. So that's a rare revenue generator for us," said Andy Gutwein, Council President.

Council member John Basham is in favor of moving the equipment to the fairgrounds.

"At this time our concern is to get the equipment that is sitting outside, inside a building.  I think this serves the purpose," said John Basham.

The TEMA board will now look over Altepeter's proposal to see if this just may be the temporary fix TEMA needs.