The Clear Lake City Council unanimously approved the nearly $183,931 bid from Com-Tec Land Mobile Radio of Glenville, Minnesota, for Motorola dual-band, handheld portable radios to replace the fire department’s outdated single-band — and in most cases, irreparable — ones.
“We’ve been using Motorola products for a long time,” Clear Lake Fire Chief Doug Meyers said. “The radio I carry is 23 years old, so with good maintenance, good preventative maintenance, of the radios, there’s no reason not to expect that.”
Many of the radios the department currently uses are more than 20 years old and are failing regularly, Meyers wrote in his recommendation to the council.
The new radios have a life expectancy of 20 to 25 years.
“It’s a significant investment, but we’re going to get long life use out of it,” Councilman Bennett Smith said.
Clear Lake has been planning to replace its radios for the past four years after its radio service vendor informed the fire department that certain radio components were no longer being manufactured and it was unable to repair it.
The city replaced the mobile radios in all the fire and ambulance vehicles last year, and it budgeted $185,000 this fiscal year for the portable handheld radios.
Com-Tec Land Mobile Radio’s bid was one of two the city requested.
It includes the purchase of 34 radios, including 28 for the fire suppression division and six for the emergency medical services division, chargers and programming.
Meyers told the council the only difference between the nearly identical bids was Com-Tec Land Mobile Radio’s inclusion of leather radio holster kits for “an extra level of protection.”
This radio was selected for its reliability, longevity, coverage and its compatibility with the state-sponsored communications system, he said, adding the new equipment will ensure consistent communications with neighboring fire, ambulance and law enforcement agencies.
“The products have been in service throughout the country for going on six or seven years, and Motorola, as a vendor, has designed hardware specifically for durability and ease of operation and also for environment that firefighters use them in hot, smoky, wet, dark conditions,” Meyers said.
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