Alfalfa County commissioners approve grant application, select Tango Tango for fire dispatch and sign mapping agreement

Alfalfa County commissioners moved forward on a package of administrative items at a recent meeting, approving a resolution to apply for a sheriff’s office assistance grant, authorizing a mutual-aid mapping agreement with neighboring Woods County, directing staff to go out on bids for a county project and selecting Tango Tango for the county’s fire dispatch service.

The measures are intended to secure grant funding for the sheriff’s office, maintain 9‑1‑1 addressing and mapping, and finalize a dispatch vendor for local fire departments. Commissioners and staff discussed costs, previous grants and the need to keep the county’s mapping system state‑compliant.

County staff described the sheriff’s funding resolution as an application step rather than a spending decision. “All that is is saying that we’re gonna apply for the sheriff’s office assistance grant. It’s the same grant that we applied for and got last year. Year. But the only way I can apply for it is for you all to sign off on it, and I can send it in with my grant,” a county staff member said during the meeting.

On mapping and address maintenance, staff said the county had already hired a third party to complete a major mapping update and received a grant to cover that work; the present agreement with Woods County covers routine upkeep and new‑address updates. “The big mapping update that kept us compliant with the state, we did have to hire a third party, and we’ve already done that. I got a grant for that. This is just a regular upkeep and when people have new addresses,” Sarah, a county staff member, said while introducing the Woods County agreement.

Commissioners discussed vendor options for emergency dispatch after staff said they had polled local fire chiefs. “I did text all the fire chiefs and a group text. All of them wanna go with Tango Tango,” a staff member said. Meeting remarks recorded a price spread between vendors — “about $5,000” and figures described in the meeting as roughly “4,400 to $9,969.60” — but the transcript did not clarify the units or whether those amounts were annual, one‑time or per‑station costs. The transcript also includes a reference to Tango Tango pricing expressed as “$48.09. $44.90,” without unit context. The meeting record does not include a detailed procurement contract or a complete price breakdown.

Other administrative items recorded on the agenda included a motion to go out for bids (the item and contractors to be solicited were discussed) and a certification request to add a chair and vice chair to a requesting‑officer education authority. The motions were made on the record; however, the transcript does not include roll‑call vote tallies or explicit final vote language for each item.

Several personnel and community details were noted in discussion but did not reflect formal actions: a work‑study student, Veronica Castro, was mentioned as joining the county office for roughly an hour a day to assist with filing and mapping tasks; Brad Raven was referenced as having suggested a document signing procedure; and staff noted a modest increase from last year in an unspecified fee for the Woods County agreement, described in the meeting as “it went up a little bit” and that the county would still charge $200 plus expenses for certain services.

The meeting record indicates commissioners handled routine procurement, intergovernmental coordination and grant application steps intended to maintain emergency services and address data. The transcript does not include formal vote tallies for the recorded motions; where the meeting text does not specify outcomes, this article reports only the motions and staff descriptions reflected in the record.

Looking ahead, staff said the sheriff’s grant application requires signatures before submission and that routine mapping upkeep will continue under the intergovernmental agreement with Woods County. The dispatch vendor selection will proceed to contracting steps consistent with county procurement rules; specific contract terms and effective dates were not recorded in the transcript.