The Emergency Telephone System Board in McLean County wants to update its unified emergency responder radio system. It will be expensive.
The current Starcom system was developed in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Interagency difficulty in communicating during and immediately after that tragedy highlighted a need across the U.S. for a common platform.
As implemented in McLean County, though, there have been gaps and dead zones in which radio reception either didn’t work at all or faded inside buildings.
“Some of these areas have been dead for 20 years. Some of these areas have just had terrible coverage,” said Sheriff Matt Lane, who currently chairs the Emergency Telephone System Board [ETSB] in McLean County.
The dead zones include areas near and west of McLean, Heyworth, parts of Downs, north of Rt. 24 around Chenoa, Anchor, and in the Spin Lake area between Danvers and Mackinaw on the west side of the county. That last one may never get complete coverage because the geography includes ravines, according to 911 Supervisor Brandon Lacey.
Lane said police and fire agencies try to make up for the radio deficit in some areas by taking backup or using other precautions.
“I don't want to accept any dead zones in any part of the county because we respond to every part of the county for any type of call,” said Lane. “Anchor, for instance, has a lot of agriculture. There's a lot of anhydrous there that could spill. There are [grain] elevators where we might have emergencies.”
There are even radio glitches in some urban areas. For instance, temporary radio dropouts can happen in the area of Normal near the Meier store on the east side. That’s caused when a radio that is getting and sending a signal to a tower on top of Watterson Towers at Illinois State University nears the edge of the range and another tower in Lexington has not yet picked up the signal, according to Brandon Lacey. Lacey said that’s similar to what used to be termed "cell phone roaming." Motorola’s updated feature called "simulcast" promises to solve the tower confusion issue for police and fire mobile unit and handheld radios.
Steep price tag
The county is six months into the process of selecting updated technology with Motorola. At the ETSB meeting Tuesday, company representatives laid out very preliminary pricing with levels of service that range from a cost of $9.65 million up to $19.25 million. There would also be an annual fee of more than $800,000.
The low end would update the current system and add three additional towers for radio reception. A mid-range option includes four new towers and at the high end, six towers.
A large number of factors influence choices for the system including tower height, tower placement, use of repeaters instead of towers, the location of wind farms, the power of handheld radios and even antenna length for those handheld radios.
Other effects on the eventual expense will be how effective county negotiators are in arriving at a contract, whether the county or Motorola will bear costs to monitor tower heating and cooling, power, and generators, rental costs for towers the county does not own, available grant money, and tower construction costs for relocated towers.
Lane said the county has employed a consultant to answer some of the technical and engineering questions.
The sheriff said the goal is to achieve a system that meets emergency needs while at a reasonable cost.
“We have an income of I think around $500,000 a year from 911 fees that you pay on your cell phone bill,” said Lane. “We have a reserve. We don't have the whole amount to spend. I think we could spend responsibly.”
Motorola also offers financing terms.
The ETSB Board includes Bloomington, even though the city severed itself from a unified dispatch operation with Metcom years ago because that particular radio system is a common platform.
County representatives will refine desired options and pricing with Motorola before the next ETSB meeting Nov. 17. Motorola cautioned it typically institutes an annual price increase for new customers at the end of each year.
Sheriff Lane said he does not think an end-of-year decision is possible.
“I think spring would be a good goal to reach, mainly because there are parcels of land we would need to put added towers on that we haven't even negotiated for yet, and I don't know how long that's going to take, or if the municipality who owns that would be okay with letting that go,” said Lane.
The radio system reboot is at least the third major technology initiative ongoing at the county. Others involve a unified criminal justice record management system replacement, and computer aided dispatch and automatic vehicle location for emergency responders including, for the first time rural fire departments.
