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Council backs radio upgrades for new communications center, staff says cooperative contract speeds purchase
Summary
Deputy City Manager John Birkner and the deputy chief described a multi‑contract purchase to modernize the city's radio backbone and create a stand‑alone communications center at the old EVAC building; staff said cooperative contracts (Sourcewell) and vendor Goose Town will expedite work to address coverage gaps.
Deputy City Manager John Birkner introduced three resolutions to buy communications equipment for a new stand‑alone communications center at the former EVAC building, saying the purchases will modernize aging infrastructure.
"These are for the radio communication systems for the new, the new, communications center that we're building at the old EVAC Building," Birkner explained, noting the project includes multiple contracts for equipment at that site.
The department's deputy chief described the technical design—transmitters, receivers and a comparator that selects the strongest signal—and said the city will move to a simulcast configuration to improve reliability and address a known coverage hole. "Goose Town is 1 of the top communications dealers," the deputy chief said, adding that the vendor supported earlier fixes and provides tri‑band portable radios.
Councilors asked about repeaters, redundancy and flood‑proofing transmitter sites. Staff said a new repeater site will be added to close a coverage gap and that locations were chosen to avoid flood‑prone areas. Birkner and the deputy chief said cooperative purchasing (Sourcewell) was used to shorten procurement time compared with an RFP.
Why it matters: Upgrading the radio backbone and adding redundancy are intended to improve first‑responder communications and resilience during outages. The council introduced the related resolutions and moved them forward for approval.
