Heath is expected to have its new communications system in place by the end of February.
"We should be getting two walkie-talkies that are programmed to try out and make sure the talk groups and channels are the way we want them," police Chief Tony Shepherd said.
Texas-based EF Johnson is replacing the city's 15-year-old system for about $370,000. The new system will be digital and more secure.
"The old system, we were told several years ago, was on its last leg," Mayor Richard Waugh said.
Heath City Council had to find a new system after a site controller failed in June 2007, causing police officers and firefighters to share two radio channels with the city's utilities, parks and recreation and street departments. Shepherd's fear at the time was that a firefighter or an officer would try to call for help and wouldn't be able to get through.
Waugh said the city worked to free up a third line, which has helped maintain proper radio control.
Shepherd said he knew it would take the city several months to get the system in place.
Waugh said the city had anticipated the system would be in by the end of this month.
The city has run into some delays along the way. The latest is that the communications tower on Blue Jay Road no longer is strong enough to withstand 80-mph winds.
"It's too flimsy; it's not sturdy," Waugh said.
Shepherd said the tower is 185 feet tall and will be shortened by about 80 feet.
He said studies show the tower could be as short as 60 feet and still be functional.
"It will be no less effective, but it will be ugly," he said.
The city also is waiting for Time Warner Cable to install fiber-optic lines from the tower on Blue Jay Road to the city's transmission tower.
"You're going to have delays," Shepherd said. "It's no fault of ours or of EF Johnson's."
Shepherd said the old 800-megahertz system was installed in 1992 and, at the time, used advanced technology.
Waugh said the new system will be built to Project 25 Interoperability standards, thus allowing the city to apply for federal Homeland Security grants to repair it in the future.
He said that means if the tower would need to be replaced later, there might be grant money to help offset the city's costs.
"The upgrade will provide us with better opportunities to apply for grants," he said.
