Board reviews FY26 agency requests, discusses $3M radio upgrade, facility needs and agency funding follow-ups

County staff presented the board with FY26 capital-outlay and agency funding requests and highlighted several high-cost or high-priority proposals for further work. Staff said the total of items listed for FY26 — with a few quotes and outstanding price checks pending — is $1,093,006.89. Candy noted technology requests and other agency submissions had not been vetted and that some line items still awaited vendor quotes.

Emergency communications topped the discussion. Staff described a proposed radio-system replacement and trunking upgrade with an estimated $3,000,000 upgrade for the trunking system and an additional $1,500,000 estimate to secure and build a tower site (the tower-site estimate was discussed as a FY27 item). Staff said Motorola would be the vendor for the radio technology and that some preliminary site-survey work might be provided at low or no charge by the vendor. Board members asked about operational and lease costs; staff said recurring annual operations could include site leases and maintenance and that adding sites (for example a southern Nelson tower) would increase annual maintenance and operational costs. One board member…