Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Harmon wants to send a clear signal of the need for an upgrade of radios

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 13:50:45 -0500

A friend, Todd Ellis, thought you would be interested in this story at
Johnson City Press.com.

Harmon wants to send a clear signal of the need for an upgrade of radios

By James Watson
Press Staff Writer

In the coming budget process for Johnson City, elected leaders will have
to face choices about levels of protection for city residents and how much
they are willing to pay.
High on the list of these funding needs is communication, said Director of
Risk Management Charles Harmon.
"We need to make sure everybody in the police department have radios that
communicate," Harmon said Monday. "We've got some immediate needs that
will be taken to the commission."
Because Johnson City was the first city in the region to go to an 800 MHz
radio system, it is also the first to have parts of its system become
obsolete.
"We were ahead of the curve . . . now we're behind the curve," Harmon
said.
The radio system used in Johnson City, which is also used by all other
first emergency personnel in Washington County - including volunteer fire
departments - has been in place since 1986.
Along with first responders, this system is used by numerous other city
services: parks and recreation workers, public works employees and other
city staff.
Many of the handheld radios still used by city police officers and
firefighters are no longer in production, Harmon said, and parts to repair
those radios are limited to what is on hand.
"We need to replace the radios which are no longer going to be supported,"
Harmon said.
But buying new radios along with some additional needed communications
equipment is not an inexpensive enterprise.
"We're looking at $300,000-$600,000 in immediate needs that will be part
of this budget," the director said. "It's just things we're going to have
to have."
The cost of each new radio varies between $1,200 to $3,500.
Working to coordinate much of the emergency communication in the county,
Washington County 911 Director Bob McNeill said he believes updates need
to be made to the entire system.
"We don't have a problem . . .  but at some point in time, you've got to
replace the old equipment," McNeill said.
Along with the new radios, Harmon said a group has been created to look at
replacing the system in Johnson City farther down the road.
"We formed a committee to look at our long-range needs," he said, adding
that the group has been meeting since early this year.
Representatives from the city, Jonesborough, Washington County and even
the volunteer fire departments around the county are working on ideas to
get the new system in place as soon as possible.
"I think in the next couple of years we're going to have to move in that
direction," said Washington County-Johnson City Emergency Medical Services
Capt. Tim Robinson.
Robinson said the system now used by Johnson City is limited in the number
of transmissions that can be made at one time. Due to the growing number
of people and organizations using the system, communication can sometimes
become crowded, he said.
"If you get a lot of people talking, sometimes you get a busy signal,"
Robinson said.
There can also be losses of communication in more distant areas of the
county, such as Gray.
Sullivan County replaced its entire system recently at a cost of nearly
$10 million, Harmon said, though he doesn't expect the city would have to
face the same numbers. He said the neighboring county had to replace much
of its backup system, which Johnson City already has in place.
What is important, he said, is creating a system that not only works well
countywide, but throughout the region as well.
"We'd even like  . . . to make sure that it is compatible with the new
system in Sullivan County," he said.
(Contact James Watson at <a
href="mailto:[email-masked]">[email-masked]</a
>).

For more stories, please visit http://www.johnsoncitypress.com. Thank you!

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