Graham County supervisors voted to purchase a software connector, not to exceed $18,000, to link county dispatch software to Arizona DEMA’s Rave alerting system so the county can send automated text/pager notifications to 52 established response groups.

McCoy Hawkins of the county IT department told the board the dispatch product the county purchased assumed cellular (LTE) capability the county’s VHF-based dispatch lacks. He asked the board to approve the connector to make the county’s system compatible with Arizona DEMA’s Rave system and to automate internal group notifications. “What I’m asking for is … not to exceed $18,000 to get the connector that will connect our software that we’ve purchased to this piece at Arizona DEMA called Rave,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins described two pieces to Rave — an external piece that sends public phone alerts and an internal piece dispatchers can use to page defined groups. He said the connector would allow automatic paging to the county’s 52 predefined groups upon entry of qualifying calls (fire, medical, major accidents), removing the need for manual intervention.

Supervisors framed the purchase as necessary to complete the county’s recent radio and dispatch upgrades; one supervisor said the $18,000 initial cost and about $1,500 annual cost were “certainly doable.” The board approved the purchase by voice vote.

County officials flagged that Arizona DEMA and Motorola own components of Rave and that state-level policy controls external public alerts. The purchase authorizes county-side integration; the board did not adopt new public-alert policies at the meeting.