Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County officials outline multi‑county radio upgrade; project core, fiber and interoperability emphasized
Summary
Sheriff’s Office and county partners described a multi‑county public safety radio upgrade using Motorola Astro 25 core technology, fiber backhaul from the Southern Tier Network and national interoperability channels; the project is grant-funded and includes redundancies and remote monitoring features, officials said.
Deputy Undersheriff Doug Hooper briefed the committee on Jan. 27 about a multi‑county public safety radio project that will replace aging UHF/VHF analog systems with a single, shared Astro 25 core, fiber backhaul and new tower and monitoring infrastructure.
Hooper said the four‑county system will include Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties and Allegany County (listed in the project materials as a participating county). He said the core will be built in Steuben County and each county will share that core, which runs Motorola’s Astro 25 system — a widely used digital public‑safety platform.
Key project features Hooper described include a Southern Tier Network fiber connection to provide redundant communications paths, a one‑year equipment warranty after the go‑live date, and a network monitoring solution (UEM) that will send text and email alerts for tower-site conditions, generator status and HVAC faults. Hooper said the project includes federally designated national interoperability channels so state and federal responders can communicate on incident channels if required.
Hooper described procurement and cost management steps: a consultant (Televate) reviewed Motorola quotes and negotiated scope and price reductions; Skywave (an MWBE-certified dealer) was hired to implement some network elements; and project fiber and network connections were funded through targeted grants. He said the program budget includes allowances to address unknown site conditions and to keep contingency to cover any unexpected work.
On paging, the committee raised concerns about older pager performance. Hooper said local fire chiefs had found a 2014 Motorola product notification about paging device limitations; he asked for a copy so the county could pursue clarifications with Motorola. Hooper said Motorola had not proactively provided that product notice to the county.
Why it matters: radio system reliability, redundancy and pager coverage are critical to fire, EMS and law‑enforcement response. The project aims to modernize radio infrastructure, add monitoring and provide state‑recommended interoperability channels.
Hooper said the upgrade will improve coverage and provide multiple fallback paths if a core goes offline (a fallback hosted in Allegany County was cited) and that the county will continue working with partner counties on how maintenance costs will be divided after the first year’s warranty.
No formal vote on the radio upgrade occurred at the committee meeting; Hooper said the county had already approved the project in a prior meeting and that the current presentation was an update.
