More than $2M spent from county radio fund

More than $2 million has been spent from the fund Garland County created earlier this year to become a full-time member of the Arkansas Wireless Information Network, the state communication system used by 900 local, state and federal entities.

The Capital Reserve Fund the Garland County Quorum Court established in March has had $2,293,478 drawn from it as of earlier this week,

according to information provided by the county. Project consultant Jerry Pogue said the total does not include the radio piece of the county’s $5.58 million contract with Motorola Solutions, the state’s AWIN contractor.

Pogue told the quorum court’s Finance Committee he doesn’t expect Motorola to invoice the county for radios until next year. Most of this year’s invoicing is for infrastructure that will support the county’s use of AWIN and connect its 30 talk paths to AWIN’s communication core in Little Rock.

The county paid Weyerhaeuser $185,000 last month for tower sites on Pearcy Mountain near the Montgomery County line and Blowout Mountain north of Hot Springs’ city limits. The

300-foot communication tower Motorola will build on Pearcy Mountain will strengthen AWIN in western Garland County.

The 36 acres the county acquired on Blowout Mountain has an existing AWIN site the county plans to upgrade with new buildings and communications equipment. County Judge Rick Davis said Friday that acquiring the mountain top gives the county flexibility to add another tower that may be needed in the future.

The county expects Motorola to invoice it for an additional $900,000 before the year ends, bringing the total

2017 outlay to more than $3.2 million. Another $2.8 million in invoices is expected next year.

The county is working on a change order to account for the $560,546 Federal Emergency Management Agency Assistance to Firefighters Grant awarded to the county’s nine volunteer fire departments. The grant money and 10-percent match provided by the departments will purchase radios for volunteer firefighters.

Pogue said the county’s original contract called for more than 400 radios, with 184 going to the fire departments.

The pending change order will remove the fire department radios, leaving 263 in the contract. Pogue said the Garland County Sheriff’s Department will receive 123 base station, vehicle-mounted and handheld radios. The road department will receive 63 radios.

Pogue said Motorola will credit the county for the deleted radios.

Office of Emergency Management Director Bo Robertson said radios struck from the contract were included in the pricing structure, giving the county more leverage when negotiating a volume-purchase price. Those radios and an additional 192 will transfer to Motorola’s contract with the 70 West Fire Department, which is administering the federal grant.

Robertson said the 192 additional units should provide all of the county’s volunteer firefighters with an AWIN-capable radio, allowing for more seamless communication when departments respond to fires in each other’s service areas.

The $5 million in excess collections of the five-eighths cent sales tax voters passed in 2011 to build the

$42 million Garland County Detention Center is the primary funding source for the Capital Reserve Fund. Pending approval of the county’s preliminary

2018 budget, the fund will also receive a $1 million transfer from the county General Fund.

The county said it expects the system to be operable by next summer.