By the end of 2025, Wayne County expects to have an improved emergency communications system.
Long-known radio coverage gaps in the county’s northeast and southwest areas will be addressed, and the county’s 12 volunteer fire departments will use new 800 megahertz mobile and portable radios. Ritter Strategic Services, a public safety consulting firm of which county council member Barry Ritter is an owner, will oversee the entire project.
Council was presented RSS’s scope of work during its Feb. 7 meeting. No action was required because money to cover the $246,000 proposal was appropriated as part of the $1.5 million allocation within the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program’s strategic investment plan. Ritter, whose company just completed a first phase, expects the work to come in under budget.
“My team identified the deficiencies in radio systems and made recommendations for the county to consider moving forward to improve radio communications, issues that we’ve suffered with for a number of years,” he said.
The simplest and cheapest solution is to transition a tower at the Wayne County Highway Department west of Centerville to the 800 megahertz system and address a problem caused by a ridge in the northwest portion of the county.
The RSS proposal involves two parallel tasks estimated to take 1,644 hours, with an hourly rate of $150.
One task involves planning the project, finalizing specifications, working through the bidding and contract process, and managing implementation. A $15,000 option involves independently verifying the system’s functionality upon implementation.
“My team then will test the operational elements of the system to make sure it works the way that the specs call for it to work and the bidder proposed it to work,” Ritter said. “That component is just us verifying that the county received what it paid for.”
The second task includes an inventory of current volunteer fire department communications equipment, overseeing purchase and installation of equipment and training the fire departments. Ritter said the state has a quantity purchase agreement price with Motorola that will save the county money.
RSS now will contract with experts to evaluate the existing tower and technology to identify the technical elements needed to provide radio coverage the county desires.
Because RSS provides a service, the county was not required to solicit bids. Council member Tony Gillam said that with the payment size and Ritter’s position on council it would have been appropriate to seek bids.
“I realize we’re not required to do that legally, but for Barry and for everyone, it avoids any appearance of impropriety,” Gillam said.
Other actions
During its morning meeting, council approved 6-0 two annual items: allowing the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to accept a share of cash and drug seizures within the county and approving the interlocal agreement with Richmond for the city to pay a share of Emergency Communications Center costs.
Council in the morning and commissioners during their afternoon meeting approved sending a letter of support for the eight-county region’s application for Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative 2.0 funding.
In their meeting, commissioners approved three ordinances:
Allowing the county to accept donations.
Authorizing the highway department to handle resident claims for mailboxes knocked over during snow plowing up to $150.
Setting a materiality threshold of $500 for variances of cash balances that must be immediately reported to the Indiana Board of Accounts, although all variances will be investigated.
A version of this article appeared in the February 14 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.