Agreements approved for radio system
The Polk County Commission is moving ahead on the project to upgrade the radio system used by public safety and emergency personnel like Redmond EMS to communicate with 911 in the field with Motorola and other entities.
In a special called session ahead of the holidays, the Commission voted unanimously to approve a contract with Motorola to purchase the new APCO (Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials) standard P25 mission critical public safety communications system along with handheld radios, links to Cobb County’s core and new towers to improve coverage across the county.
The tallied increased to a final approved sum of more than $7 million to build a new radio system for 911 operations in Polk County, up slightly from the $6.8 million sum the county originally discussed as the price tag for Motorola’s estimate on the upgrade. The reason those costs went up was the potential need for a fifth tower to be put up, with concessions made by Motorola on the final tally.
Commissioner Ray Carter laid out the broad strokes of the plan for the board, starting with costs the county will incur for installation of four new radio towers. He
explained that the contract price built in an option on a fifth tower site in case the system requires it for full coverage of the county.
Carter said that testing of the system with four tower sites will determine whether the fifth will be needed or not.
“It gives us the ability to use their (Motorola’s) criteria and formula for guaranteed coverage areas,” he said.
So if the county doesn’t need the fifth tower site, they’ll save on the cost of the system in the long term. Their agreement with Motorola also includes a 10 year maintenance and replacement plan
To pay for the system, the county is going to use a mix of funds from what they have set aside from payments on landfill operations, alongside a $3 million loan through the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia at 2.1 % interest.
Commissioners look to have an aggressive payoff of the loan for the system over the next five years based on the agreement they took up on Dec. 16.
The county is not charging interest to the cities for the split payments they’ll be able to make for handheld radios they need for police officers and firefighters to use in the field. They are also picking up the costs of filing paperwork and advertising for variance applications needed at radio tower sites in the Taylorsville area and one in Rockmart.
“There still may be small incidential things, like putting up a service pole or installing utilities on the ground,” County Manager Matt Denton also pointed out to the Commission that is not part of the cost of Motorola’s contract.
Commissioners also responded with an explanation of the requirements for upgrading the system on a short time frame. Commission Chair Jennifer Hulsey asked Carter to explain that when the county previously installed their system, previous administrations didn’t take swift action on a required switch over by the Federal Communications Commission from analog to digital radio systems.
“Polk County and entities involved in public safety made a quick choice,” Carter said.
He admitted he didn’t quite have all the details on the process, but understood that in the aftermath of the recovery from the 2008 housing crisis and recession that followed that “finances were quite different.” The system at the time was selected at minimal cost.
”That’s what happened six years ago, and right after 2008, and the revenues declining like they were, and all entities did what we had to do to keep communications going,” Carter said.
Now the goal of the new system is to fix issues with the old, and added to that warranty now expired as of September 30 on parts that are no longer being manufactured, the county determined that they needed to move ahead with plans as far back as 2017 when issues have continually cropped up between the new 911 center equipment and radios in the field over the past two years.
Hulsey said the board not only made the right choice to help public safety in the county, but also in making sure that taxpayers were getting a good deal with Motorola.
”I’m very proud of this board in the sense that every board member has gone through this contract, line by line,” she said.
She also said the county is taking a brunt of the costs of the 911 radio system upgrade because “we feel like “it is our responsibility.”
With approval of the contracts and agreements for maintenance with Motorola, the county also gave their unanimous yea votes to subscriber agreements from the City of Cedartown, Rockmart, Aragon, for the Polk School District Police and Redmond EMS.
Commissioner Scotty Tillery said he felt the system was one that would be built for the long haul.
”This is going to last for 30 years, and not five or six,” Tillery said. “Hopefully for our lifetime.”
Thanks were also offered by the board for the work put in by former Assistant County Manager Barry Atkison on the project, for Motorola’s efforts in negotiating costs downward and for the work of the county’s administration to find funding options as the contract work was completed.