A few months ago the following was posted right here at trunkedradio.net, as I recall it came from Monroe News:
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Monroe County officials have decided to take advantage of a $ 6 million federal grant that will allow them to join the MPSCS TRS and have signed the final paperwork last month. The expected changeover will take place by July of 2004 and will replace the VHF and UHF systems currently in place. The primary reason for joining the State Police TRS are uniformity and interoperability among all public safety agencies in the county.
Currently, police, fire, EMS, and the road commission operate on four different radio bands. By joining the MPSCS, this will place all of these public safety entities on one unified radio system, something that Monroe County has not enjoyed since the late 1950s, when they were all operating on VHF-Low band. However, 154.430 MHz will still be used as a tone-out frequency for fire and civil defense pagers.
Two new towers around 175 meters tall will be erected in the county. The first will be located in the city of Monroe, while the other will be located in the southern part of the county near the town of Samaria. The current idea is to link these towers together with the one currently in place in Dundee as a “simulcast” system, with additional coverage provided by the tower located in Flat Rock. Likewise, all of the radios will have neighboring trunked systems in Washtenaw, Wayne Counties in Michigan, and Lucas County in Ohio programmed into the mobile and handheld radios for mutual-aid communications.
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I went to the site just now to look up your story at
http://www.monroenews.com/articles/2003/10/30/news/news02.txt and the story does not reflect what you've indicated in your post... Here are some excerpts:
"A $6 million federal grant awarded in September started a one-year clock on the process of joining the system, designing coverage aspects, building at least three communications towers, buying radios for every one of the emergency responder agencies, training people how to use the new equipment and implementing the system. A project timeline circulated at the meeting puts purchase of the necessary equipment in December,
completion of tower construction in July and operation of the new system in August. "
""I don't know how we're going to pay for it yet," Mr. Londo said, adding that the county will seek an increase in the telephone surcharge paid for emergency communication to help supplement the costs. The Monroe County Board of Commissioners has approved placing an issue on the August ballot asking voters for an increase in the surcharge on all land lines in the county from 80 cents to as much as $3.20. Mr. Londo said the amount asked for would be adjusted to reflect the project's costs, but it still must be approved by county residents.
"If the surcharge doesn't pass the board of commissioners is probably going to have to make up the difference out of it's own operating fund," Mr. Londo said. "And as you all know nothing is free. The county will be responsible for all of the initial equipment for all municipalities." "
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So using this and the previous post I'll address yours:
"They will not have it up for a vote until Aug 2004."
Incorrect, that's a vote on getting citizens to pay for it via their phone bill.
"They need to come up with a big grant from the Govt"
No, they already have the grant.
"It will be several years before Monroe county goes 800mhz."
The timeline says operational in August 2004.
"If that fails they have a 460 mhz alternate plan."
I've not heard of that -- what does that consist of?
In any case, nothing in either of the articles indicates that this is just a long-range plan, but that it is underway. The article clearly states that if the ballot doesn't pass, the county will have to foot the bill itself and let the municipalities handle it from there.
Not trying to start a fight, but two news releases seem to be quite clear that this is happening and I'd love to see what you have that differs.
- Rob
