County discusses updates on fire radio tower project

Static, muffled, choppy voices speaking barely intelligible codes is the current fire radio system in Owen County.

The fire radio system is analog, but new Owen County 911-Communications Director Cherie Anderson has plans to improve it by changing it to digital signals, a signal that makes the voices as clear as water.

A system the Owen County police departments already have.

First, Anderson asked the commissioners to approve the rescinding on the Ritter Strategic Services (RSS) contract, a contract originally signed in February. After starting in March, looking over it, she feels the work can be done without RSS, which could potentially save the county $55,000.

The attorney found no issue with the request, stating that since there was not a meeting of minds, a meeting where both parties are present and can discuss the terms and conditions of a contract, then the contract wasn't valid.

The commissioners approved rescinding the contract unanimously, 3-0.

Moving on, Anderson brought up the vendor request proposal for the radio tower project. Currently, there are no bids, but Anderson is working on creating a proposal to send to vendors. Once she receives bids, the due date being June 24, Anderson plans to have the 911 Advisory Board hear them in a public meeting June 26.

The commissioners approved the sending of the proposals.

"I'm kind of hitting the ground running with this, because I would like to see the entire system installed and in place by potentially late fall," Anderson said.

Though there is not an official cost for the project, the Owen County Council, in a previous meeting, estimated the project to be around $500,000.

To help fund the project, the county council proposed using the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) fund. The commissioners approved the council's proposal.  

Gary Burton, president of the board of commissioners, said $350,000 from the ARPA fund would be an appropriate amount, with the balance being taken care of by the county council. The commissioners approved the amount from the fund.

When it comes to ARPA funds, both commissioners and county council members must approve the expenditure. Commissioners are tasked with the planning and proposal, while the council is responsible for the expenditure itself.  

"This is important money to be spent for a very important project," Burton said.  

While the radio project is still being planned and finalized, Anderson also brought up the state of the towers and discussed tower maintenance.

Anderson visited the four fire radio tower sites — Freedom, Hoosier Energy, Ponderosa Road and Patricksburg Community Volunteer Fire Department — along with the backup tower on Rocky Hill Road. She stated these sites "needed extensive construction work" on the buildings that house the radio equipment.

She described the Freedom site being a dilapidated building with gravel flooring as well as having a mouse problem. The Rocky Hill Road site was described as having water damage.

Burton said the roof of the Rocky Hill Road site had been repaired, and Anderson noted that though there was no standing water, the damage was still visible on the ceiling tiles and the floor was “spongy.”

"The problem with that is we have one maintenance guy. So he needs two or three other hands to get some of this stuff done, so we have to hire out," Burton said. "I agree with everything you're saying. Cherie (Anderson) this stuff needs to be dealt with and fixed immediately."

He recommended Anderson to send these issues to the maintenance department, as well as discussing with maintenance the possibility of hiring out to get the towers repaired.

Anderson asked if it would be possible to transfer the $55,000 that was saved from canceling the RSS contract to use on the towers before installing the new digital equipment.

Burton said it would be fine to transfer the ARPA funds towards maintenance, and Anderson said she would come back with quotes pertaining to the maintenance of the towers.

The discussion for the fire tower radio project continued during the June 10 county council meeting.

Anderson brought up the ending of the RSS Ritter contract, and proposed that moving forward she'd organize a committee for the project — made up of members who would use the frequency — to hear the vendor proposals and bids, while having a public meeting to hear the proposals.

"My recommendation is that we don't (select) the lowest bidder, that we hear the vendors out and hear each of their proposals," Anderson said.

County council member Anton Neff asked if Anderson would seek out more professional help, like how the Ritter contract was intended. He cited the last time a radio project was done, it was vendor-driven, and he wanted to make sure past mistakes weren't repeated.

County council president Polly Chesser said the previous project resulted in the vendor leaving the radios worse than what they were originally.

Anderson responded, saying that there will be assurances built in throughout the process. She said the vendor wouldn't be paid the full amount unless the system was at least 85-percent better than it was.

The council encouraged Anderson to form the Radio Fire Tower Project committee as soon as possible, but to review ideas and proposals before the public meeting idea. Neff also suggested opening the committee to be a bit broader and having law enforcement and emergency management agency voices included, instead of strictly those using the fire tower frequencies.

Anderson also brought forward the maintenance issues of the towers again. She said in the meeting she was working on bids for the cost to fix the existing structures or creating new structures.

The goal is to have temperature controlled, secure spaces for the radio equipment to be housed. She wants to protect the investment in the new fire frequency by upgrading the security of the equipment and potentially having more cameras and/or installing alarm systems.

Since the county doesn't own the land the towers are built on, except for the one at the Particksburg Community VFD, but, instead, lease the land, the council told Anderson to look into the leases, which she'll provide more information about at the next meeting.

"The main reason for this, going all the way back to the main reason, is there are many scenes where there's zero communication with dispatch," county council member Steve Carrell said. Carrell is also a firefighter with the Cataract Volunteer Fire Department. "We just cannot talk to anyone. There is no communication. We're trying to get through, nothing happens. We literally have to send somebody either up a hill in a vehicle to call or we pick up our cell phone."

Anderson said the anticipated date to have the new digital radio system in place is by the end of fall to early December.