New radio equipment on hold until other options explored
Members of the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners want to hear another opinion or two as to what will solve the communication problems in the county. Are the problems related to several lightning strikes? Is the equipment too old ? Are the radios being used correctly?
Is there something that hasn?t been explored which might provide a quick fix? The commissioners want to know. And they want to find out before they spend much more money on new radio equipment. At the suggestion of commissioner Gary Wozniak, a motion was approved to not make any further repairs until meetings take place with the Michigan State Police and radio engineers.
Wozniak, along with a couple of commissioners, are not satisfied with a list of recommendations by State Electronics, the firm hired to maintain the equipment, and believe they?ve waited long enough to see results. Wozniak is disappointed it took withholding a couple of bills, one of which was $11,500 for the installation of a repeater in Onaway, for the company to sit down and discuss the situation of the radios not working properly.
A MEETING of the Public Health and Safety Committee took place nearly a week after the decision by the board, but State Electronics president Dean Hull said no one had ever contacted him requesting a meeting. ?Not one person from Presque Isle County ever called me and said ?would you come up and have a meeting with us,? ? Hull said in a telephone interview Monday. ?When they requested it, I was there within three days.? Wozniak said the problems with the company have been ongoing for five years.
?I feel like Gary,? said commissioner Bob Schell. ?We?ve had these problems for years and couldn?t get any response from State Electronics until we withheld money, and now they come up with a half-dozen things that they think will improve the system.? Hull is disappointed the commissioners ?attacked? his company publicly and said some commissioners don?t have all the facts. ?Many of the complaints these guys are getting are from out-county fire type people,? said Hull, ?of which none of these people we do any work for. ?They (commissioners) are getting opinions from everybody, without understanding a darn thing about how this works.?
WOZNIAK IS not in favor of putting any more money in the old system. ?No matter how much money we put into this system, it?s still an old, inadequate system,? said Wozniak. ?The 800 megahertz system is a new system.
Eventually we?re going to have to go that way. We should start putting money in that system, and start building on it…we won?t be able to put the fire departments on, and it?s really complex, but the thing of it is, we?re putting money into an old system.? It may not be possible, according to conservative estimates, to have 800 megahertz operating for a year because of FCC approval. ?We obviously can?t wait that long to correct this problem,? said commissioner Don Field, who was at the committee meeting.
The Public Health and Safety Committee did discuss an increase in the 911 surcharge, which undersheriff Bob Paschke was looking into, and also getting back with the insurance carrier, which is refusing any more claims related to a lightning strike in June 2002. Some of the blame is being placed on the insurance company, which advised State Electronics to fix damaged equipment rather than replace it, Hull said.
?EVEN IF WE do go temporary, or a little bit at a time with 800 megahertz, you?re still going to have to maintain the one (system) we?ve got,? said commissioner Mike Darga. ?You still have to have it because we?ll never get everybody on. We don?t even know if there?s going to be enough room on the towers for all the ambulances and the fire departments.? Wozniak has been in contact with Gene Adamczyk from the MSP, who would bring in members of his staff to test the area. The best Adamczyk believes he can offer is 97 percent coverage f
Schell told board members he had been contacted by Northeast Radio Engineers of Tawas, who showed interest in assisting the county evaluate the equipment.
?IT MIGHT not hurt to call that gentleman,? he said. ?It wouldn?t hurt to meet with that company and see if they can look over our current system. We?ve been given a bum steer so many times by State Electronics.? Gaylord Communications was also suggested as a company that might provide a recommendation.
?The fact that they?re getting other opinions is of no concern to us,? Hull said Monday. ?We feel confident with what we?ve told them with our recommendations and we stand by them.? The withheld payments of more than $12,000 were removed from the table, and made, because the meeting took place. It probably won?t be the final discussions between State Electronics and the county board.