Austintown, Boardman officials OK funding for radio project

Austintown, Boardman officials OK funding for radio project

Both Austintown and Boardman trustees approved funding for their joint dispatching radio project Monday.

The cost of the $1.5 million Motorola radio system will be shared between the two townships.

Austintown is responsible for no more than $830,000 of the project’s cost, which will be paid out over a maximum of 15 years, said Police Chief Robert Gavalier.

The $1.5 million Motorola radio system will bring the systems for both Austintown and Boardman up to federal mandated standards and will allow each township to have three radio-dispatch consoles and one backup, instead of the two consoles and one backup that they have now.

The radio system allows emergency dispatchers to communicate with police officers on patrol. The federal government has mandated all public-safety land-mobile-radio systems go to narrowband — switching from analog systems to digital — by 2013.

Boardman trustees already have approved funding Boardman’s $750,000 share of the dispatch project using federal grants and the Law Enforcement Trust Fund, which includes seized funds from drug raids.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com