BOARDMAN — Mahoning County still wants to join a statewide communications system, but it won’t be as easy or inexpensive as officials had hoped.
Law enforcement officials in the Mahoning County Council of Governments — consisting of Austintown, Boardman, and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office — met Tuesday morning with representatives from Motorola to learn more about the cost and technological feasibility of linking the first responder communication systems with the Multi-Agency Radio Communication System, commonly known as MARCS.
MARCS is a state-sponsored system that allows emergency responders from different agencies to communicate directly through their radios, instead of funneling communications through multiple dispatch centers, which costs time in an emergency.
“It has been the trend in Ohio,” said Sheriff Jerry Greene, chair of the council’s communications committee. “It makes it easy to talk directly to multiple other agencies, and the support and maintenance is superior.”
MARCS would allow local law enforcement, for example, to tie into the MARCS system anywhere in Ohio, easing communications with local and regional agencies in the case of prisoner transfer to and from out-of-county facilities.
Boardman police Chief Todd Werth said the fee to join MARCS is $1.3 million to $1.4 million, but that is not the only cost.
Mahoning County has a software upgrade agreement with Motorola to maintain the existing network, hardware and software that keep emergency communications systems operating for police, fire and road crews.
While the state will take over the maintenance of the towers, the county has to have the proper system in place to support MARCS.
Representatives from Motorola said Mahoning operates on Motorola’s SUA-2 (or “Essential-Plus”) plan. To upgrade to support the MARCS system, the county would have to purchase an SUA-3 (or “Advanced Plus”) plan.
Chief Deputy William Cappabianca said the meeting was necessary because there was some confusion over what the cost will be for Motorola to upgrade from SUA-2 to SUA-3.
Motorola provided an estimate that included software support for radio consoles in the Youngstown and Youngstown State University police departments and Canfield city. While those entities are among the users of Mahoning County’s radio network, Cappabianca said they will have to pay for their own upgrade to MARCS and make any necessary purchases of new equipment.
The county asked for a new estimate from Motorola excluding those three agencies, which the representatives said they can provide within a week.
Cappabianca said the council also may decide to eliminate the console at the Mahoning County Jail and then the county only would be charged based on the equipment at the Boardman and Austintown dispatch centers, which manage communications for 1,800 users across Mahoning County.
“It’s something we’re considering,” he said. “We’ll see if we can get it done without jeopardizing the safety of the deputies inside the jail.”
Another concern the council had is that the usage cost per radio, to be tied into the system, is not as low as they had been led to believe. Werth and Cappabianca said they have told several department chiefs across the county that the cost per radio under MARCS with the new SUA would be about $10. Motorola’s assessment puts it closer to $23.
Werth said they also have concerns about some older radios not being compatible with the new network, and the costs to upgrade others to be compatible, which he said could be as high as $100,000. If they cannot be made compatible, the county or departments will have to buy new radios at their own cost.
Motorola representatives asked the county to send a list of radio serial numbers, so the company’s technicians can determine which ones will work.
The committee scheduled another meeting for Nov. 12.
