Search for 11-year-old runaway cost more than $10K

The search for an 11-year-old Clark County boy who ran away from home last month cost more than $10,800 and involved about 150 people.

Nearly 40 agencies participated in the 14-hour search for Perry Beller, who was reported missing on June 22, according to a Clark County Emergency Management Agency situation report obtained by the Springfield News-Sun. He was found unharmed in Christiansburg, about five miles away from his home near North Hampton.

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The cost estimate is based on personnel time and of the equipment used, Lisa D’Allessandris, the Clark County EMA Director.

“We used the FEMA schedule of rates to help us determine what that was but we didn’t include all of the personnel costs,” D’Allessandris.

That’s because many people were volunteers, including off-duty firefighters and police officers.

The departments won’t be reimbursed for any of their costs from the search.

The scale of the search wasn’t affected by the fact that the boy is a deputy’s son, D’Allessandris said.

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Some things could have gone better in the search, Pike Twp. Fire and EMS Chief Jerry Donnelly said, like notifying fire departments sooner and not limiting the missing child alert. The alert wasn’t made an Amber Alert available to everyone because Beller walked away and wasn’t abducted.

But overall Donnelly and D’Allessandris both said they believe the search went well and will use what they learned and apply it to future searches.

“It’s wonderful that the community came together like that,” she said.

It was the second time in less than a month that the boy, who’s the son of a Clark County deputy, went missing, Donnelly said.

“With this child, previously on Memorial Day weekend, he happened to run away also,” Donnelly said. “We found him in North Hampton that day.”

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Beller has a disability that might have provoked him to run away called oppositional defiant disorder, firefighters said during the search. The disorder affects children, generally in their adolescence, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

He was charged in Clark County Juvenile Court after the last runaway attempt and placed into a diversion program.

Clark County deputies were notified about 6 a.m. June 22 that he was missing. Other agencies were called in a few hours later and that’s when the Clark County EMA became involved.

“They requested us to come out and bring our mobile command post so they can set up and operate a unified command,” D’Allessandris said.

Her department was called to help coordinate resources needed and planning efforts for the search.

“We called in the Region 3 Rescue Strike Team and that team is made up of eight counties within our region,” she said. “The one call to the Region Strike Team, you get all of the resources that that brings.”

That team has a lost person and K-9 unit.

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