HAMILTON, OH (FOX19) - This week the Butler County Emergency Management Agency conducted swift water / water rescue training for 9 emergency responders from Butler County agencies including the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the Butler County Technical Rescue Team, the City of Oxford Fire Department and the Middletown Police Department.

These agencies are part of the newly formed Butler County Regional Water Rescue Team and will be responsible for swift water, flood rescue, ice rescue and river rescue throughout the County. Funding for equipment and future training will be supported by State and Federal grants. The Regional Team will consist of members from both Fire and Law Enforcement Agencies across the County. Currently, the Regional Team has approximately 40 members on the team and will continue to expand.

The training was a joint operation hosted by the Hamilton Fire Department which provided the training facilities and instructors.

HAMILTON, OH (FOX19) - As winter nears, significant changes have been made to improved bad weather operations and train for the new season in Butler County.  Here's a release detailing some of the activity: 

As the region suffers through yet another dreary onslaught of rain, pushing us ever closer toward the all-time record for the wettest year ever, the Butler County Engineer's Office is thinking snow. Preparations are under way for the BCEO's annual Snow Summit next week as well as the annual Snowfighters Truck ROADEO scheduled to be held in early November. 

New for this winter will be an additional salt storage facility gracing the BCEO landscape. Slated to be built next to the existing salt barn this new facility will hold 6,500 tons of salt, same as the current one. "The added space will double our storage capacity," said County Engineer Greg Wilkens. "This will provide us with more buying power to keep prices low.