Abilene, KS - County protests possible fee to use state radio system

[Thunderbolt]

ABILENE, Kan. — Dickinson County elected officials and County Administrator Brad Homman received a 2 percent raise. The Dickinson County Commission unanimously. In other action, the commission sent a letter to Kansas Secretary of Transportation Mike King protesting a possible fee to use a state radio system and complimented the county roads and bridges crews.

Abilene Reflector-Chronicle - County protests possible fee to use state radio system

[w2txb]

At (worst case) $400 per radio per year (assuming no rate increases), that would be just over a quarter of a million dollars; in ten years top county could probably have paid for its own radio system, but may or may not have "interoperability" with the rest of the state. In those ten years, the current equipment could likely become obsolete.

[kb2vxa]

Well, looks like Kansas has Dickinson over a barrel but face it, Robert A. Heinlein said it long ago; TANSTFL. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

[nec911]

Originally Posted by kb2vxa

Well, looks like Kansas has Dickinson over a barrel but face it, Robert A. Heinlein said it long ago; TANSTFL. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

They have just about every county in this state over the barrel. We were all told in the last 7 years that there would be no charges other than for the leasing, renting or purchasing radios to work on the system. Most of the counties in Kansas that jumped on board the system are small enough and don't have the budgets to pay a fee like this. Of significance and concern to me is the fact that the Regional Councils were asked for funds to finish out several of the towers in the last couple years.

Another big step backwards in the realm of interoperability. As a COML for our Type III Incident Management team here, it is going to be a sad day. The state might see this as a cash cow, but in the long run they are going to lose so many people. I have read of four other counties who have submitted letters to the state. There is also the military folks who are using this system and are not going to want to pay for the privileges.

[PJH]

I've always been an advocate of county/towns chipping in or paying for local towers. Its a win-win. Its typically a one time cost, or in other arrangements they pay for the tower and whatever the PM costs works out to be. Still much cheaper than building out a new radio system - the local agencies win and the state agencies get better coverage.

Now, if the state promised one thing and now want to charge - thats another thing before you lay out 1k-3k per radio. If the system was built out with a user fee in mind, I am sure there would be less of an issue.

Compare to Starcom21 (a little different as it is owned by Motorola):
Motorola Starcom21 - Fee Structure