MAHONING COUNTY Radio system still in danger

The holdup is money -- or, rather, the county's lack of it.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A plan to overhaul Mahoning County's aging emergency radio communication system has gone static.
"It's gone nowhere," said David C. Comstock Jr., chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District. "The project right now is in the intensive care unit. Unless they come up with different ways to fund it, it may be dead, unfortunately."
But county officials insist the plan hasn't lost its pulse -- it's just been temporarily shelved because of money problems.
"It's very frustrating," said Maggi McGee, county 911 director.
County commissioners hired an Illinois consulting firm last year to conduct a comprehensive survey of all police and fire radio systems in the county and make recommendations for necessary upgrades.
The company handed in a report in March, which said it would cost about $41 million to make all the necessary improvements and changes, including construction of a new, centralized communications center.
The report also recommends replacement of old transmission towers with taller ones, adding new towers to improve radio coverage, and buying new radio equipment.
In April, commissioners broke the plan into segments and instructed various department heads to assess their necessity and feasibility. From there, commissioners planned to prioritize the segments and decide which ones to tackle first.
Here's the situation
Nothing has been done since then, Comstock said.
"Our radio system is terminal," he said. "With each passing day, I think the risk to our citizens gets a little greater and I see nothing being done."
Area police and fire chiefs have long expressed concern that the radio system is inadequate because there are too many "dead spots" around the county. Those are areas where safety officials are unable to communicate by radio because the signal is too weak.
Comstock represents the safety forces and is chairman of the committee that selected RCC Consultants to do the radio system survey.
He said commissioners should have at least given authorization to go ahead with construction of a new communication center by now, which would cost about $4 million.
But county Administrator Gary Kubic said the county just doesn't have the money go proceed with that, or any part of the plan.
"It really comes down to cash," Kubic said. "And we realize that time is working against us because things get older with each day."
Auditor George Tablack has said the county is on the brink of fiscal disaster because its annual revenue has lagged far behind expenditures each year since 1999.
Commissioners have dug into the county's cash reserve each year to make ends meet, but Tablack said that's about gone.
More money for courts
Making matters worse is a recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling that commissioners must provide the county juvenile court with an additional $2.3 million this year, and provide the probate court with an additional $172,000.
Judges in those courts sued commissioners in January to get that funding, which they'd sought in their budget requests for this year.
"It's a difficult issue," Kubic said. "When you have limited resources like we do, it leaves you with very little for projects like this."
Kubic and McGee said there is no way the county can afford to pay for the entire project at once but might be able to accomplish it piecemeal.
The first step would be to meet and come up with a prioritized plan, McGee said.
She intends to call a meeting soon of the project committee to see whether there is interest in going forward that way.
Whatever is done, Comstock said it must be soon.
"How much longer can we keep the county's current system on life support?" he said. "Because that's where it is."
bjackson@vindy.com