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Radios For Ranchers Not Distributed

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – More than 230 radios meant to improve safety for southern New Mexico ranchers and other residents in remote areas near the Mexican border remain stacked in a storage shed, five years after their purchase.

Dona Ana County Sheriff's Cpl. Jim Hash says a big problem is that the area lacks radio towers to relay transmissions to emergency responders.

Hash says even sheriff's officers are not able to talk to the county dispatch center in places along N.M. 9, which parallels the border.

Hash says it didn't make sense to put radios in ranchers' private vehicles when officials knew police radios don't work in the remote area, especially southwestern Dona Ana County.

The program intended to use the radios to improve communications where cell phone service is spotty or nonexistent.

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Information from: Las Cruces Sun-News, http://www.lcsun-news.com

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.