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Council approves regional radio-frequency agreement to improve emergency interoperability
Summary
The Bowie City Council approved an interlocal frequency-use agreement with the North Texas regional advisory council to allow EMS, fire and other emergency services to share radio frequencies and improve communications during regionwide incidents; staff said the agreement requires no local funding for frequencies or towers.
The Bowie City Council voted to approve a frequency-use interlocal agreement with the North Texas Regional Advisory Council to permit interoperable radio communications among regional emergency responders.
A speaker identified in the meeting as Doug explained the agreement as "an interlocal agreement that everybody all the EMS services, fire departments, everybody, if we have a region wide, disaster, we can all run into each other's areas, and we have radio communications for interoperability." Doug said the regional program will cover frequencies, towers and reprogramming costs, saying "they're paying for all the frequencies, all the towers, even if we have to pay for reprogramming, they're paying for all of it. So it's no money out of our pocket, but it gives us that added ability to ensure that we have interoperable communications."
Staff said the agreement covers a large region, including Clay County, Monte County, EMS services and several counties listed by name. Councilmembers voted by roll call and recorded ayes; the motion to accept the frequency-use agreement was approved.
Why this matters: interlocal agreements that enable shared radio frequencies can reduce communications barriers among emergency services during disasters or multi-jurisdiction incidents. The agreement as described would not require local capital for frequencies or towers, according to the presenter.
