The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON--County Commissioner Merle Jackson would like to express his gratitude to the voters of Columbia County for passing Proposition 1, the one-tenth of one percent county wide sales tax for the purpose of providing for ongoing, stable funding for improvements and maintenance of the radio system and 911 Emergency Services Operations.

“It’s gratifying to start on this road of upgrading the equipment,” Jackson said.

Replacing the eleven-year-old analog radio console in the county’s dispatch center is priority number one for the commissioners. One hundred ten thousand dollars has been identified in the county’s 2018 capital budget for its replacement, said Emergency Management Services Director Lisa Caldwell.

“It is failing and has to be replaced. We were having trouble with it again, today,” she said.

The radio console is the “hub” for dispatching calls going out from the dispatch center and for field units talking to the dispatch center, Caldwell said.

Once the new radio console is installed, the radio technician will identify the next steps to build on it.

Caldwell said there is also a need for an additional repeater to be located on the west side of the county, in an area where there are dead zones in communication. Building a new repeater has been identified by the commissioners as priority number two.

That project will be a collaborative effort with Fire District No. 2, and paid for through rural excise taxes, she said. The one-tenth of one percent county-wide sales tax will be used for the all the rest.

Repeaters, site equipment, dispatch consoles and site infrastructure have a 10-15 year lifetime. Mobile radios have an 8-10 year lifetime. Mobile radio microphones, mobile antennas and site batteries last two to three years. Portable radios have a five to seven year lifetime, and they need batteries and pager batteries, each year, according to Thor Wegman, a radio technician with Industrial Communications. Wegman has been working with the county to help identify and solve the issues created by outdated equipment.

Caldwell said she and Sheriff Rocky Miller, Fire Districts No. 1, 2, and 3 staff, and Public Works Director Andrew Woods have been in regular meetings to discuss ongoing problems with the equipment and work on solutions.

Once the commissioners adopt the 2018 budget, the group will meet in January to discuss other priorities, Caldwell said.