Public-safety committee approves plan to fund subscriber radio reprogramming for new county radio system

The Richland County Public Safety Committee voted Sept. 5 to proceed with a plan to fund reprogramming of subscriber radios and limited support for agencies as the county completes its radio-tower upgrades.

Committee members said reprogramming existing radios will be the largest near-term expense for many agencies, and county staff asked the committee to authorize using funds already set aside in the tower project budget to cover those costs. "The biggest need that agencies have is reprogramming their radios," a county staff member said as staff described agency responses and equipment inventories gathered over the summer.

The project team told the committee that civil work at the Yuba tower site is nearing completion but required additional change orders, GenComm is finalizing frequencies and an FCC license will follow once the last frequencies are secured, and combiner and microwave equipment shipments are underway. Staff said many agencies already have sufficient radios and primarily need reprogramming rather than wholesale replacement.

Julie Fleming moved to approve the plan to use tower project funds for subscriber reprogramming; Supervisor Frank seconded the motion, and the committee approved it by voice vote. Staff said they will continue collecting quotes from agencies’ radio-service vendors to finalize actual costs and to bring any needed change orders back for board-level approval if required.

No additional policy changes or new borrowing were approved at the committee meeting; the vote authorized staff to proceed with the subscriber-support plan within the existing project budget and to report costs as they are confirmed.