As the board continues to work out the contract with Motorola Inc., the company building the system, legislators proposed that 1,046 “subscribers,” or radios, be purchased. Buying that many radios will allow the county to maximize Motorola’s system discount and lessen the project’s overall cost.
Instead of putting the cost on local emergency services departments, the county’s purchase of the radios saves $2 million in taxpayer dollars. The next step is to officially sign the contract with Motorola after the board’s approval.
County Legislator Anthony J. Doldo, who heads the ad hoc committee overseeing the project, said the cost-savings measure is a step in the right direction for the project.
“We’ve come a long way and things are moving along great,” Mr. Doldo said.
He added that local EMS, fire and police departments will still have to pay for other equipment needed to use the radios, however.
Last December, county legislators picked Motorola to construct the system, which has an overall cost of $20 million to $22 million.
The new emergency radio system will replace the county’s current system, which uses an obsolete low-band frequency. Jefferson County Emergency Management Director Joseph D. Plummer has said that the Federal Communications Commission has declared the frequency “dead” because there is too much noise to properly communicate.
The new system will operate in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) range, which will greatly improve the portable communications coverage across the county. To use the equipment, 12 new radio towers will be constructed at various spots throughout the county, with the goal of making it 97 percent covered by portable radio.
The anticipated start time of the project is spring 2017 with the goal of going live by 2018.
Under the Central New York Interoperable Communications Consortium, Motorola has a master site based in Onondaga County that provides shared telecommunications services for Onondaga, Madison, Cayuga and Oswego counties. The advantages of Jefferson County being attached to the master site include cost savings, shared maintenance costs and seamless roaming between counties.
The county does have some grant money on hand to offset costs. Around $6 million in grant funding from the state’s Interoperable Communications Grant Program will be used.
©2016 Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, N.Y.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
