Solar Radio System Planned on Anacapa

Ventura County officials have agreed to spend $23,000 to build a new solar-powered communications site on Anacapa Island in an effort to help the National Park Service clean up the island.

George E. Mathews, the county’s director of information systems, said that National Park Service officials had complained that the county’s communication equipment on the island was unsightly.

He said since 1980, the county has been using a large microwave dish and a generator powered with diesel fuel to transmit radio communications from the island to the sheriff’s squad cars and fire trucks along the coast.

Mathews said Park Service officials had asked the county to leave altogether, but said the county was able to maintain the communication center on the island by agreeing to switch to solar power.

“Originally, we were going to have to take our microwave dish and go home,” Mathews said. “But eventually it evolved into a plan.”