43
Townships to share dispatch system
AUSTINTOWN
Boardman Township sent the down payment this week for a $1.7 million Motorola radio-dispatching system that it will share with Austintown — and possibly other entities.
Addressing the Metro Government Leaders Roundtable on Thursday at the Austintown Senior Center, Boardman Township Administrator Jason Loree said the two townships would like to form a council of governments and invite other area safety forces to use the radio equipment.
“We believe it has the capacity to serve all Mahoning County,” said Loree, who also is vice chairman of the Metro Government Leaders Roundtable.
The roundtable is a group of local government officials meeting monthly to discuss opportunities for collaboration. Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker is group chairman.
The collaboration between Austintown and Boardman came about because the federal government has mandated all public-safety and industrial/business land-mobile- radio (LMR) systems to be on a narrow bandwidth — switching from analog systems to digital — by Jan. 1, 2013.
Each township will have three radio-dispatch consoles and one backup, instead of the two consoles and one backup that they have now, Loree said.
Austintown also has five lines that carry 800 MHz frequency, which is the public-safety spectrum, said Austintown Trustee David Ditzler.
David Comstock, chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District serving Poland Village and Township, said that all fire departments in Mahoning County are narrowband-capable from changes made in 2006 using funds from a Department of Homeland Security Grant.
Comstock expressed concern about the distance of the wavelength for 800 frequency, saying a previous study noted that 10 towers would be needed to have coverage county-wide. He said he supports the Austintown-Boardman partnership.
“You need to identify how many entities are really interested, but I also think, if you build it, they’ll come,” he said.
Tony Paglia, vice president of Government Affairs for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said the Chamber supports these types of collaborations.
A report released late last year by nine Ohio-based metropolitan chambers of commerce, including Youngstown/Warren, provided recommendations to reduce the state budget.
“We did not advocate slashing funds” from the Local Government Fund in the report, Paglia said. “We advocated providing incentives for local government to collaborate and consolidate.”
Mahoning County Commissioners John A. McNally and Carol Rimedio-Righetti also attended the meeting and said county officials are willing to work with local municipalities.
McNally said the new board has not discussed the sheriff’s proposal to take over the county’s 911 center.
Rimedio-Righetti, however, noted that the commissioners are open to all ideas.
“We want to work with a system that fits everyone because there’s money that could be saved for everyone,” she said.