Barry County completes three-site radio upgrade; officials warn encryption mandate will require costly radio replacements

Barry County officials said the county has completed a multi-site upgrade of its public-safety radio system that county staff described as a major improvement in indoor and outdoor radio coverage, but warned a state-level encryption mandate will force replacement of aging portable radios by 2030.

The project "encompass[ed] not 1 tower, but 2 communications towers," county staff member Stephanie Lehman told the Barry County Board of Commissioners, saying the total project cost was $6,214,264 and that the work was funded in part by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money and a $3,000,000 allocation in the 2023 state of Michigan budget. "Towers are live. They've been live since November," Lehman said.

The upgrade uses three sites — Nashville, Hastings and Middleville — that operate as a simulcast system to "flood the area with RF" and increase coverage, Lehman said. She described the Nashville tower as 475 feet tall and said the county owns the Hastings and Middleville sites and has equipment on a state-owned site in Nashville. "The same equipment is at all 3 of those sites, and what it does is it floods the area with RF . . . to increase coverage," she said.

Why it matters: improved radio coverage affects county fire, EMS, sheriff, 911 dispatch and volunteer units that rely on portable radios for life-safety communications. Commissioners and members of the public asked about remaining gaps, equipment ownership and long-term costs.

Lehman warned the board that federal Land Mobile Radio guidelines adopted at the state level require an increased encryption standard and that "we're gonna have to adopt those standards by 2030." She said the county will be required to move to AES-256-level encryption and that most portable radios currently in service in Barry County are more than 10 years old and cannot store the required encryption keys. "Most of the portables in service in Barry County are over 10 years old, and they don't have the ability to hold the encryption key," she said.

Lehman described a split in readiness: county dispatch consoles already carry the needed encryption, but field devices will need replacement. She said the change creates a capital-planning need for local fire and EMS agencies and other first responders. "Device replacement is really important," Lehman said, adding that agencies should begin budgeting for capital outlay to replace outdated devices.

Board members asked for more detail about where additional sites are needed; Lehman said additional sites will likely be required, especially in the south end of the county, and described the ongoing technical and funding challenges. She also said the county has attempted to secure additional state and federal funding but that those efforts are difficult and time-consuming.

Public comment reiterated the practical urgency for volunteers and community responders. "Everything we do, we're all volunteers. Everything we do is for our county, for the public, keeping them safe. Our radios are our lifeline," said Steven Pitch, a resident of Yankee Springs Township, urging the commission to include volunteer units in replacement planning.

Lehman said the system already provides markedly better indoor and outdoor coverage than the old equipment and that the simulcast approach improved service to areas that previously had poor reception. She warned, however, that encryption, interoperability and the pace of technological change will create recurring funding needs. "We're kind of at where we're at with this for now, but it is tenfold better than what it was before," she said.

The discussion produced no formal vote or new funding authorization during the meeting; commissioners asked staff to continue pursuing grant opportunities and to return with more detailed cost estimates and implementation plans for radio replacement and any additional tower sites.

The county's immediate next steps, as described in the meeting, include continuing to seek external funding, coordinating with fire and EMS agencies on capital-outlay planning, and preparing documentation for upcoming audits on encryption readiness.