There are plenty of out-of-county radios on both systems (Rockland and Orange), so it's not very difficult to communicate if you truly need to. Sussex County and Pike County both have radios on the Quad State talkgroup, and Bergen will also at some point. Mahwah has plenty of radios on the Rockland system, including the police desk. There are numerous police, fire, and EMS agencies in northern Bergen that have the Rockland system in their radios. And so on.
My point is that both counties did what they felt necessary, which was to unite nearly all public safety within each county on a common system. Perhaps some don't realize how much of a challenge it is to get that many agencies on the same page. Bergen County is a good example of what a hot mess it can be when everyone does their own thing and there is very little commonality between even bordering agencies.
So yeah, sorry that Rockland and Orange no longer bother with noisy low band or VHF, but at the end of the day their primary concern is and should be what is happening within their county, not across the border in another state.
