Sedona council approves $755,000 amendment to police/fire radio system to add channel and sites

The City Council unanimously approved Amendment No. 1 to the linking agreement between the City of Sedona and Zetron Inc. on Jan. 13, adding a third operational radio channel (referred to as Channel 5 in project materials) and three equipment sites—Slide Rock, Indian Point and Verde Valley Medical Center—to expand coverage and reduce channel congestion for simultaneous incidents.

Erin Leffler, support services manager for the Sedona Police Department, described the current system as two channels with the second acting primarily as a backup; she said adding a third channel would reduce operational conflicts during concurrent incidents and events such as the Sedona run. Zetron representative Rick Felt described layered redundancy and power/site backups built into the system design.

The staff proposal would expand the project from 11 to 14 equipment sites and raise the contract by approximately $755,005.10 (the full contract compensation not to exceed $1,863,097.56 per the motion). Leffler and others argued the incremental cost saved by combining the police and fire work now outweighed doing a later second phase; staff said some of the funding would come from departmental savings and contingency if necessary and that the Sedona Fire District will also proceed with related amendments.

Council members asked about mutual aid and county cost‑sharing; staff said agencies can switch channels to use each other’s systems and that the city has not requested county funding for this amendment. The council approved the amendment by unanimous vote.