Vendor outlines $7.8 million infrastructure plan and $4.7 million radio replacement option for Black Hawk County communications system

Black Hawk County officials heard from Raycom representatives at a March special session about the long-term costs to maintain and replace the county's P25 radio and 911 dispatch infrastructure. Raycom said many components of the county's radio and dispatch system are at or nearing manufacturer end-of-life and recommended planning now to avoid sudden reliability gaps.

Mike Hawkins, the Raycom presenter, told the oversight board that the company has provided technology and support to the county for decades and that the vendor monitors the county's radio and 911 systems 24 hours a day. "We're here to talk about the long-term maintenance for your two-way radio system," Hawkins said, outlining the vendor's proposed program to budget for phased replacements.

The county currently has a maintenance contract that Hawkins said costs about $490,000 a year and escalates roughly 3% annually; that agreement runs through 2028. Hawkins explained that maintenance agreements extend manufacturer warranties and cover preventative maintenance and certain infrastructure failures, but they do not cover equipment obsolescence or manufacturer end-of-life. "When manufacturers stop making a radio, we eventually stop covering those on a maintenance agreement," he said.

Hawkins gave a county inventory estimate of a little over 900 radios in active use, broken down into 672 portable units and 253 mobile units, plus a separate six-site digital fire paging system used by volunteer firefighters. For replacement planning, he presented two high-level financing approaches: an annual payment schedule (with escalation) to cover rolling infrastructure and radio replacement, or a one-time purchase price for immediate replacement.

On costs, Hawkins said replacing all radios would cost about $475,000 per year if financed over 10 years, or roughly $4.7 million as an upfront purchase. For infrastructure (repeaters, microwave backhaul, dispatch consoles, battery plants and related site work), Hawkins presented assumptions that produced a total roughly in the $7.79 million range spread over immediate and multiyear needs; he identified approximately $1 million of that total as the most urgent work to be done in the next year, with additional multi-million-dollar items in years three to seven.

Board members asked practical questions. A supervisor asked whether county road-department radios were included in the 900-unit count; Raycom said those radios were purchased and managed by the road department and likely were not counted in the 900 figure. Officials also asked about trade-in value for old radios; Hawkins said secondary-market value is typically low and that trade-ins are usually negotiated with manufacturers rather than sold on the open market.

Finance Director Michelle Wigner said the financing option matters because the county's operating budget cannot easily absorb a large, one-time purchase. "It was important to me that financing fit within budget constraints," Wigner said. The board discussed the possibility of using bond proceeds and debt service levies to fund a one-time purchase as had been done previously.

Hawkins recommended the county identify priority infrastructure items, ask Raycom for final prices that include any negotiated trade-in, and then decide whether to finance or purchase outright. The board asked Raycom and staff to return with a final price and a prioritized timeline; staff also said they would circulate potential follow-up meeting dates.

The meeting included a brief procedural vote to approve the agenda by voice, and staff later raised a separate calendar item requiring a closed session on a software project and potential litigation. No formal capital commitment was made at the session; the board directed staff to pursue pricing and to bring back recommendations for financing and implementation.

The oversight board is expected to review Raycom's final pricing and a proposed multi-year timeline before making a funding decision.