Chief Marvin Moeller said the project could shave up to 20 minutes off response times.
“When they don’t know their location it just adds more panic and stress to the situation because the dispatcher is asking ‘Where you at?’ and they say ‘We don’t know,’ ” Moeller said.
Tuesday, the Little Miami River Kleeners recognized Cordonnier with a certificate for his work.
Cordonnier said he was inspired by his friend, former Scout Connor Campbell, to do the project. Campbell died of a heart condition in 2005 at age 11, but he had always hoped to make this change. His name is on every sign.
“It was very emotional for me,” Connor’s mother, Jill Campbell, said. “The good thing though is I can see him living on and being proud with what Nathan’s doing – that’s more important.”
EARLIER REPORT (July 19)
Thirteen canoers and kayakers stranded on the Little Miami River this afternoon all got out of the water safely.
Local firefighters and the Watercraft Division of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources responded to reports of canoers being stranded around 3 p.m. on the river between Lower Bellbrook Road and Ohio 725, just east of Bellbrook.
Heavy rain lead to a quickly moving and swollen waterway that led the 13 to cling to low-hanging tree branches or to scramble onto the riverbank.
Early reports indicated that officials were launching boats to rescue people.
“Nobody was actually hurt, everybody’s OK,” said Chief Marvin Moeller of the Spring Valley Twp. Fire Department.
Fire departments from both Greene and Warren counties responded to the scene, along with the ODNR, to rescue the canoers and kayakers along several miles of the Little Miami River.
“It’s a big rescue for us so we were lucky enough to get six boats on the river and was able to pick up all the patients,” Moeller said.
After those rescued were checked out, they all were allowed to leave.
The biggest problem today was at first finding the stranded canoers and kayakers. Moeller said he’s working with the state to put road names onto bridges that cross the river so those in need of help can report where they area.
“Today, we spent at least 20 minutes to 30 minutes just trying to find the victims, and the way we were able to find them was our dispatchers pinged their cellphones and gave us a better location,” Moeller said.
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