Warsaw Fire, PD Seeking County ARPA Dollars For Radios
Warsaw Fire, PD Seeking County ARPA Dollars For Radios
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw Fire, PD Seeking County ARPA Dollars For RadiosAs part of a public safety communication project, the county is working to move from a VHF communications system – which will no longer be supported after July 1 – to the P25 Phase 2 700 MHz communications system countywide.
Current mobile devices in the county are a mix of antiquated VHF and 800 MHz devices with “severely inadequate coverage, leading to unserved and underserved parts of the county on a public safety basis,” according to information provided by Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Mike Wilson.
During the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting Friday, Wilson and Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker requested permission to apply for funding of mobile radios through the Kosciusko American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Committee, the Kosciusko County Commissioners and the County Council. The Fire Territory is seeking $69,513.60, and the WPD is seeking $83,124.12.
Wilson told the Board that over the past few months, the Fire Territory applied for two different grants, both of which were denied.
“The County Fireman’s Association, with K21, we had budgeted some funds to be able to put the mobile units in our responding apparatus, on the fire side. We chose to allow K21 to attempt to help the county units because they were less funded. That did not go through. And in the last probably 48 hours, there was an option that the County Commissioners came up with that was going to be able to help all the law enforcement agencies and fire services in the county,” Wilson said.
He said he and Whitaker approached Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer with some dollar amounts that they we going to be needing.
“It came through that we were going to be involved in part of the grant that is being handled at the County Commissioners’ side. So this is a request coming to you on behalf of the Fire Territory and Chief Whitaker, the police department, to apply for this funding as part of the Kosciusko County Public Safety Communications Plan,” he said, noting the plan includes replacing all the VHF radios.
He and Whitaker moved to dual-band portable radios “back in the day,” hoping to get to a program on the 800 MHz frequency, Wilson said.
“So now these new mobile radios we’ll be going on is not only going to be working in our stand-alone county program system, which is a 700 MHz system, but it’s also going to give them and us the inoperability throughout the whole district. So if they get in a situation where their officer is in pursuit of somebody, and they get outside of our 700 frequency, they’ll be able to push a button and immediately be on the state frequency and be able to communicate throughout the whole district,” Wilson explained.
He said it also allows inoperability all the way up to the state line.
Thallemer said, “This goes way back to several years ago when we purchased all of those mobile radios and the county put together a group to look at new towers in the county so that these new radios could work, not only locally here in the city and around the city, but out in the outlying areas where volunteer fire services are critical. Anytime you get out into those dead spots, obviously, it’s a concern. So the county has worked through that. The city has been at the table for those discussions, and we’ll continue to support construction of those towers.”
He said the project is through the Kosciusko County ARPA Committee, made up of a county commissioner, Council member and county staff.
“They are proposing to provide these mobile radios that, in the apparatus, in the squad cars, in addition to the portable radios that we already have, so these costs are specifically for the radios that go into the vehicles. And the ARPA Committee at the county level is considering this right now,” Thallemer said, but the Committee needed the specific amounts to consider them.
“Timing is of the essence,” Board member George Clemens said.
“That is correct,” Wilson said, “because the whole system cost – there is a deadline for this program. The consoles are already in at dispatch. So this kind of got pushed very quickly to be able to be done. To be able to save. This is an extreme cost reduction from Kenwood, who is a manufacturer of the radio system.”
Thallemer said the county did find out that this was an eligible project for the ARPA funds. The Department of the Treasury is very strict on the use of the funds and the county was given the OK to spend the money this way.
Whitaker said, “We were already in a great situation with our portable radios, and they’re still in good condition. We actually thought this day was going to come sooner, but it is here, and it sounds like it’s probably going to be as early as May for us, so we have time to get them installed. Obviously, the biggest push is with the discounted pricing.”
The 40% discount is based on last year’s pricing, he said, and the pricing next year could be 50% greater. Whitaker said they were appreciative of this opportunity and for the county to include them.
Clemens made a motion to approve the grant application to the county for the mobile radios, and his motion was approved unanimously.
