MISSOULA — A couple of months ago the the Missoula County Office of Emergency Management was approached by U.S. Border and Customs Enforcement so that they could try to use some of the county's radio broadcast systems.
Missoula OES Director Adriane Beck presented the county commissioners with an overview of what that would entail earlier this week.
The federal agency already has some equipment on the mountain and the new add on would help them deliver a signal to Helena.
There is no concern that the addition would interfere with county usage and it would be a requirement that ICE’s signal would not interfere with the county's.
The next step is now for the county commissioners to hear directly from border patrol about their plans.
"Following the initial briefing yesterday the direction that I was given was to reach out to the border patrol to have someone come and have that discussion with the county commissioners in person so that is something that we will look to schedule in the future," Beck said.
She added that working with other agencies who want to use county radio broadcast is a common occurence and the Montana Highway Patrol broadcast their signal to Helena using it.
