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Brown County approves resolution to seek state grant to upgrade emergency dispatch system
Summary
County staff told commissioners they will apply to the governor's public safety office for a competitive interoperability grant estimated at $951,179 to upgrade the county CAD/dispatch system; commissioners approved a resolution supporting the application by voice vote.
County commissioners approved a resolution to submit an application to the Office of the Governor’s public safety office for a Public Safety Communications Interoperability Enhancement Project aimed at upgrading the county's computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.
A county staff member told the commissioners the project estimate is $951,179 and that the upgrade would allow law enforcement and fire agencies across municipal jurisdictions to operate on the same dispatch platform. “The total value of the project that we are submitting is $951,179,” the staff member said, explaining the figure came from an earlier estimate plus an allowance for cost increases.
The staff member said the county is coordinating with municipalities that participate in the existing dispatch agreement and that the city of Bramwood’s ability to front its portion of an upgrade could affect which systems can integrate. A commissioner added the county is working with Power Technologies on the county-side upgrade and described the benefit of shared systems for communications between law enforcement and fire.
The staff member read a template resolution provided by the governor’s office; it included language about matching funds in the template but staff said this particular grant has no match requirement. The resolution also designates the county judge or a designee as the authorized official to apply for and accept the grant if awarded.
Commissioners moved and seconded the resolution and approved it by voice/raised hands; the meeting record does not include a roll-call tally or the names of individual yes/no votes. The application will be submitted to the governor’s public safety office for competitive selection; award of funds is not guaranteed and the office will later notify successful applicants.
The county also noted Sheriff Field was present during the discussion. Next steps are to finalize the application and submit the required resolution and supporting documents to the governor’s public safety office.
