San Jacinto County Radio Problems With Old System

[Enforcer52]

Story about aging radio system in San Jacinto County being offline for four days and on going problems that County leaders refuse to address. County Judge says it's not an emergency (since they were able to fix it) and wants to use funds provided by State grant for sheriff dept. employee raises, to fix radios instead of issuing raises.

San Jacinto Co. first responders say radio system failure is an emergency, but leaders think not

The system went down for four days in January in an area known for spotty cellphone reception, according to first responders. Declaring it an emergency would tap into needed funds to fix it, something leaders seemed resistant to.

abc13.com

 

[kv5e]

I bet the roads to all the County Commissioners houses are freshly paved........

 

[KevinC]

I bet the roads to all the County Commissioners houses are freshly paved........

Ouch!

 

[mfn002]

Something tells me that the system is held together by chewing gum, bailing wire and loose solder joints...

 

[Enforcer52]

Something tells me that the system is held together by chewing gum, bailing wire and loose solder joints...

That is about the way it is. Our county is rural, population around 25,000, large percentage over 50 years old. Hardly any industry, most businesses still mom and pop operations, Dollar General and Family Dollar are the big retailers here. Only one regional grocery store in the whole county. If you need something you drive to Livingston, Cleveland, or Huntsville.

Deputy pay is in the lowest bracket in the state, horrific turnover in Sheriff Dept., Sheriff Capers is a great sheriff but the county commissioners and county judge fight him over the budget every year. 8 years ago our sub-division raised $12,000 to buy bullet proof vests for the department because the county would not buy them. When they do get new vehicles the old 10-15 year old radios are stuck in the new vehicles. It is a mess.

They did patch the current system to the TxWARN system since the earlier outage this month, but the radios are not capable of transmitting in the 700/800 mhz range. Several of us are getting together to go to the commissioners meeting and raise cane about the whole situation.

 

[rattlerbb01]

That is about the way it is. Our county is rural, population around 25,000, large percentage over 50 years old. Hardly any industry, most businesses still mom and pop operations, Dollar General and Family Dollar are the big retailers here. Only one regional grocery store in the whole county. If you need something you drive to Livingston, Cleveland, or Huntsville.

Deputy pay is in the lowest bracket in the state, horrific turnover in Sheriff Dept., Sheriff Capers is a great sheriff but the county commissioners and county judge fight him over the budget every year. 8 years ago our sub-division raised $12,000 to buy bullet proof vests for the department because the county would not buy them. When they do get new vehicles the old 10-15 year old radios are stuck in the new vehicles. It is a mess.

They did patch the current system to the TxWARN system since the earlier outage this month, but the radios are not capable of transmitting in the 700/800 mhz range. Several of us are getting together to go to the commissioners meeting and raise cane about the whole situation.

I feel this….while working for the state in my early 20’s, we rented in Waterwood for a couple of years and volunteered in the VFD there. Terrible radio reception up that way, EMS was GoldStar and were always 20 minutes away from Onalaska, and it was just rural and low income for the most part. Sheriffs deputies were lucky to make $30k.

 

[Enforcer52]

Still low income area, except for the weekenders up from Houston. Allegiance is the ambulance service now and actually try to keep a unit in Oakhurst and Point Blank but always seem to be out for all the old sick folks. Waterwood has really gone down over the years, not what it once was. Deputies still over worked and under paid!

 

[rattlerbb01]

Still low income area, except for the weekenders up from Houston. Allegiance is the ambulance service now and actually try to keep a unit in Oakhurst and Point Blank but always seem to be out for all the old sick folks. Waterwood has really gone down over the years, not what it once was. Deputies still over worked and under paid!

Yes sir, when your biggest city in the county in Shepherd, there ain’t much! Lol, I did meet some good people, and Waterwood was already a failed master plan even in 2004-5 when I was there. Word was that it was to be a major stop along the high speed rail between Houston and Dallas that was planned way back when, complete with a world class golf course. Big money from Houston and Dallas would flock to the exclusive gated community on Lake Livingston long from the crime and traffic where they worked, but the commute would only be an hour and some change to either city. Obviously they fully banked on that coming to fruition, but all that was left by my visit was the eccentric founder and his natural burial cemetery, and a bunch of rentals and tiny little 70’s/80’s themed 2BR/1BA cube homes.