The estimated cost of the upgrade for the county could be as much as $1.2 million and include monthly fees of $20 per month per radio, Clark County Commissioner Rick Lohnes said. A local man has also offered to upgrade county radios for about $80,000.
One system under consideration is the Ohio MARCS or Multi-Agency Radio Communication System.
“Tremont, Enon, New Carlisle, South Vienna, German Twp., they all have to get what the sheriff gets,” Lohnes said. “But we’re not sure what the best deal is right now. We’re going to pay an (expert) a few thousand dollars to tell us what we need to do.”
The “narrowbanding” mandate is designed to move business and public agencies operating VHF and UHF radio systems to a more efficient frequency by Jan. 1.
This move would reduce harmful interference to public safety communications systems.
Lohnes said the county may be eligible for state aid to help with the cost of the upgrade, but officials will still have to use money from the general fund.
The city of Springfield is already operating on the 800 megahertz spectrum, but last year “rebanded” or moved its wireless radios to new frequencies within the spectrum under another mandate from the federal government.
Commissioner John Detrick said the upgrade will be a hefty expense for the county as well on villages and townships in the area.
“Every village and every government agency is going to have to have a $3,000 receiver and $3,000 radios. It’s going to be staggering for these towns. We’re going to pay for the sheriff’s, but we want everybody to be with us,” Detrick said.
In other business, commissioners received proposals from five companies that have placed bids to redesign the county’s website.
Companies that bid on the website are: CBOSS Inc. of Boardman, Ohio; Shout it Out Design of Columbus, Ohio; eGov Strategies of Indianapolis; CivicPlus of Manhattan, Kan.; and Vision Internet of Santa Monica, Calif.
The bids ranged from more than $20,000 to more than $55,000.
Officials did not receive bids from any local company and said they would choose a company that would provide the county with a professional website at the best prices.
“We want to project a new image of Clark County, and to do that we need to update our website,” Detrick said.
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