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County IT reports new website timeline, phone and radio work and a $500 cross‑banding fix
Summary
Chris Martin reported on recent IT projects: completed phone transfers, generator sensor repair, fixes to jail reporting to the state, 28 new cell phones for the sheriff, a rebuilt booking-room computer and a tested low-cost custom device (about $500) that links three radio repeaters to improve cross‑agency communications in emergencies; he said the county website is expected to go live later in April.
Chris Martin, Linn County IT, briefed the board on a series of technology updates and operational fixes. He said year‑to‑date the IT team has handled hundreds of tickets, set up new computers and phones across departments, repaired a generator sensor at the health department and rebuilt a booking-room computer that had a corrupted boot sector.
Martin described a custom cross‑banding device his team built to interconnect three repeater systems (800 MHz, UHF and VHF) to support multi‑agency communications during major outages. He reported the device cost about $500 to build—far below commercial alternatives the county had priced between $5,000 and $10,000—and that testing had been successful.
Martin also said the county website should go live later in April, with department‑level training scheduled so each department can manage and update its own pages; he will test a modest hardware option to improve Zoom audio for meetings and return with cost details.
