Ballard County officials press contractor for fixes after residents report spotty 9-1-1 and radio coverage

Ballard County officials spent a substantial portion of their meeting pressing for clearer results from a contractor hired to handle 9-1-1 dispatch and radio infrastructure.

Speaker 2 told the board the county signed a contract with an outside provider for dispatch services but that problems persist in the field. “They said they had capabilities of doing it correct. Why are we still in my mind?” Speaker 2 asked, reporting that local responders still experience dropped or distant communications.

Speaker 3 said the contractor had told county staff they would “drive and take a test throughout the community” but that no such field test was audible to local users. “I never heard a test,” Speaker 3 said, adding the promised follow-up had not occurred.

Fire and EMS representatives raised similar concerns about patchy links. Speaker 4 said the county’s radios ‘‘are not taking care of our radios for the past 12 years’’ and urged local control and quicker vendor response. Speaker 4 also described limited outreach from the contractor on reported radio problems.

Officials discussed possible technical causes, including antenna and tower placement, and asked the contractor to run a clear end-to-end coverage test. Speaker 2 asked for an explicit list from each first-responder agency cataloguing where communications fail so the county can determine whether issues stem from the contractor’s equipment or local infrastructure. Speaker 4 said he would follow up and meet with the contractor the next day to run diagnostics.

The board did not record a formal vote on system changes during the meeting but directed staff to gather test results and produce a written plan for redundancy and repairs. The next procedural step reported in the meeting was a planned on-site test and follow-up communication from county staff to the vendor.