The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
$997K grant pays for five-city radio system
Communities must commit 10% toward cost
A new radio system for five Lorain County fire departments is coming closer to reality with the approval of a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
On Aug. 23, Avon Lake Mayor Greg Zilka announced the city had received a letter announcing the approval of a $997,167 to upgrade radio communications capacities.
The grant will be shared between Avon Lake, Avon, Sheffield Village, Sheffield Lake and North Ridgeville.
The five communities will be responsible for collectively contributing 10 percent of the total grant.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for us to enhance our communications system,” Zilka said. “We have applied to this grant the year before and we were a finalist. But this time, they called and asked for our financial numbers in order to drop the money into our account.”
Avon Lake was very pleased and the grant will go a long way in addressing communications capabilities for Lorain County fire departments, Zilka said.
The mayor also praised Avon Lake fire Chief Jeremy Betsa for his work on the issue and helping convince communities to come on board.
Avon Lake Ward 4 Councilman David Kos, who is chairman of Council’s health and safety committee, said Betsa’s ability to bring five cities together was no easy task.
“Coordinating this with five of the communities, attending a lot of these meetings, working with the other fire chiefs and getting five fire chiefs, five mayors, five city councils to agree on this has gotten us to this point,” Kos said. “And, I want to give so much credit to Chief Betsa and his staff for all their hard work putting this together.
“I’ll be honest, there were a few times where I just didn’t think it was going to happen with some of the headwinds that he was facing. But he stuck with it and we pulled this thing off and it’s really impressive that he was able to do so.”
In June, the five cities separately authorized lease agreements with Cleveland Communications for the equipment necessary to run the radio systems.
As part of the proposal, Cleveland Communications will install and maintain ownership of the hardware and each city would pay user fees with $10 per month for each mobile radio and $40 for each control system radio, officials said.
The company would provide the city with 10 radios in each category at no cost, according to an agreement.
Avon Lake Council unanimously approved an ordinance Aug. 23 to formally accept the grant from the federal government and to continue the process.