AUGUSTA -- The Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency will soon be able to communicate via radio with all county municipalities, regardless of radio frequency, thanks to a $15,000 grant.

The funds will be used to build a cross-band repeater system, agency Director Richard Beausoleil said, which will allow the Kennebec County Sheriff's Office and the county's Emergency Management Agency to communicate with multiple law enforcement and emergency-response departments countywide.

Beausoleil told county commissioners Tuesday emergency officials applied for the federal grant, distributed through the Maine Emergency Management Agency, in early summer.

Beausoleil said his personal cross-band repeater was valuable during the West Gardiner plane crash on Feb. 1, which killed Colorado business mogul Jeanette Symons and her young son.

"There was trouble getting a hold of agencies trying to help or that people were trying to contact to come help us," Beausoleil told commissioners. "I brought my cross-band repeater so we could communicate on a broader scale and people said, 'Holy cow, this system really works.' "

A cross-band repeater works by sending a message on one band to a receiver that, in turn, transmits the message on a separate band. It operates on both UHF, or ultra-high frequency, and VHF, very high frequency.

Messages are generally sent out on the UHF frequency then transmitted to the VHF frequency, Beausoleil said.

He added the county already has the appropriate licensing to communicate on the different frequencies used by Kennebec County's various responders.

The Maine Emergency Management Agency will build one system for its command trailer and another system that is mobile.

Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said the cross-band repeater will be an asset to his office.

"This is a system that will allow us to communicate much more efficiently," Liberty said.

The sheriff's office currently has to communicate with all county municipalities on a wide range of frequencies, and the frequency a community uses has to be "loaded into our own communications system," Liberty said.

Currently, the sheriff's office is unable to have contact with Pittsfield over a police radio. Deputies either have to drive to the scene or use another means of communication such as a cellular phone.

The cross-band repeater will correct that, Liberty said.

Beausoleil said the system will be up and running within a few weeks.

"As soon as we get the official letter, I'll start ordering the stuff to build it and should have it done two weeks after it comes in," Beausoleil said. "We have winter coming up, and I want to make sure it's ready to go by then."

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811, Ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com