Government : County to replace Emergency Radios and Equipment

The Benton County Supervisors have given their approval to begin the process of replacing all of the county's emergency radio transmission equipment. The equipment that is being used now is well over a decade old. Now the work will begin to find the right company to do the job.

When 911 calls come in, they are routed through the dispatch center where the hub of the communication takes place. Calls are then sent out all over the county, and sometimes to bordering counties. The calls are received by either the county deputies or officers in towns in the county to respond to all sorts of emergencies. The center also contacts fire or emergency services, and if needed, sometimes life flight services. Currently, the equipment used across the county is pieced together so that it can all work together.

The new system will blanket the whole county with radios from the same company, making all of the equipment compatible with each other. This will give the county a controlled system. The estimate right now is that in addition to new equipment in the dispatch center, the county will need to purchase approximately 150 radios to be placed in vehicles and around 550 portable devices.

The contract to order the radio system equipment cannot be signed until July of 2022. With prices rising at a steady rate, the estimate to do that today is around $7 million dollars. Scott Hansen of Benton County Emergency Management is planning on the possibility that it could be closer to $8,000,000. (A fun fact, old articles show that the total price tag for the construction of the jail 10 years ago was a mere $6.2 million.) The estimated lifespan of the radios is between 7 and 10 years.

How do government projects like this work? First, the government, in this case, the county supervisors, must first approve the project. Then the county arranges to finance the project. This project will require a loan with the maximum amount of $8,250,000 to be repaid over 7 years. Now the search will begin for grants to help offset the cost of the project.

If grants can be found, they often require matching funds, so the county will need money to match whatever grants they can find. The county may be able to use some of the federal money coming in from the American Rescue Plan to help pay for the project as well. The final numbers are far from being set on this project. Worst case scenario the burden for the expense will fall on property taxpayers in Benton County.

Both Hansen and Sheriff Ron Tippett will be meeting with several vendors to purchase the needed equipment. Hansen said that they will be pushing for the best prices and asking for price breaks due to the number of radios needed. They will be considering quality, price, and ease of use for the equipment.