Emergency responders met last week to talk about the upgrade, and about the availability of Homeland Security grants that might help some agencies cover part of the cost of reprogramming.
Etowah County Chief Deputy Michael Barton and Dustin Watkins, project coordinator with the sheriff’s office, talked to responders about the plans. By the end of the year, Watkins explained, the county’s first responders will have mutual-aid communications in areas that are covered by the Alabama Interoperable Radio System. Responders outside Etowah County that are on the state system will be able to communicate with agencies here.
To see that need, Barton said, think back to the April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak. The path of damage and injury hop-scotched across the state. Help was needed across county lines, and information needed to be shared between county agencies.
But it doesn’t take a disaster to make inter-county communications a necessity. Barton recalled recent chases that crossed county lines — one taking deputies in pursuit of robbery suspects all the way from Attalla to the Birmingham area. Law enforcement agencies need to be able to alert other agencies when something of that kind is going on.
With the new system, deputies and other first responders will have statewide roaming.
Watkins said E-911 and the city of Gadsden absorbed the cost of a tower upgrade, but the need to reprogram all radios using the system cannot be avoided.
The new system will be loaded into radios so they will work after the system is upgraded.
Watkins said Motorola has agreed to a county-wide conversion price of $80 per radio, but he’s working on getting a better price. In addition to the statewide mutual aid the new system will enable, he said the change will allow for the “cleaning up” of some old talk groups and will allow better planning for emergency communications.
Etowah County agencies will have a $10 per month per radio subscriber fee, he said, starting in fiscal year 2018, guaranteed for at least a year.
For agencies, the reprogramming, or conversion fees will add up. E-911 has 16 radios to reprogram; Gadsden has 750 and other agencies have about 1,000 radios.
If there is a bright side to the cost, it may be that it comes in a year when there will be money available from Homeland Security grants for Alabama first responders.
Barton said the grants are competitive, but that interoperable communications is one of the funding priorities, along with mass gathering security and soft target/critical infrastructure protection.
Money from fiscal years 2015 and 2016 have been combined for distribution this year, Barton said. For Alabama, $1.3 million is available and all agencies in the state can apply.
The minimum to apply for is $10,000; the maximum per agency is $25,000.
Barton said each agency can apply for grants that could be used for reprogramming radios or other needs.
Applications will need to be submitted to the point of contact that the ECSO, Kelley McGinnis, by Oct. 3, so they can be checked for completion. All applications must be submitted to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency by 5 p.m. — emailed or hand-delivered — Oct. 10.
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