County to hear from Motorola Friday

MARENGO — With an aim to do “due diligence” as a custodian of taxpayer money, Iowa County Supervisor Abby Maas asked that the board of supervisors to hear from Motorola before deciding to renew an emergency services communications contract with RACOM.

Josh Humphrey, Emergency Management coordinator, told Supervisors in May that the county’s communications contract with RACOM expires next October and the county needs to renew it soon so replacement of outdated equipment can begin.

The last time the county updated the system, it took 18 months to get the new radios, said Humphrey.

Emergency Management asked RACOM about extending the contract a year or two, but RACOM wasn’t interested, Humphrey said in May. The contract requires RACOM to keep equipment working, but the county’s fire radios have been at their end of life since 2022, said Humphrey. The manufacturer has stopped making parts.

Mike Miller, president of RACOM, explained to supervisors in August that the maintenance agreement extends the manufacturer’s warranty on equipment and covers annual preventive maintenance for about $300,000 a year.

Cellphone companies take care of communication up to the 911 call, said Miller, but RACOM takes care of all the communications after that, such as dispatch equipment, towers, in-car radios and handheld radios.

RACOM’s maintenance contract with Iowa County doesn’t cover obsolete equipment, said Miller, “and that’s where your current system is today.”

Maas and Iowa County Supervisor Jon Degen had a Zoom meeting with Motorola representatives last week, and Maas wants the entire board to hear from the supplier.

Degen said the two communications systems the county can use are set up completely differently, so the county isn’t comparing apples to apples when it looks at cost.

The Motorola system uses Iowa Statewide Interoperability Communications System, while Iowa County is currently using Shared Area Radio Agreement.

Degen said he was told that the ISICS needs more space and the county may have to add on to the sheriff’s office to accommodate it.

The county would have to pay for the infrastructure changes if it switched from SARA to ISICS, not just new radios and a maintenance contract, Degen said. It’s hard to see how the county could put in a new system for less than it could upgrade equipment on the system it’s using now, he said.

Fire chiefs have told Degen that they want to stay with SARA, Degen said. The coverage is better, they said, and bordering counties have compatible communications.

Maas questioned whether the coverage is actually better. She’d like to see a coverage map. Maas also questioned whether the county needs all the features its paying for.

Maas also noted that some of the radios are not at the end of their lives. Why is the county replacing them? she asked.

Humphrey said in August that EMA is replacing radios with less expensive models, eliminating features it doesn’t use. It’s also reducing the number of radios it will buy because it can get by with fewer.

Some law enforcement radios will be passed on to the fire departments, Humphrey said.

For $300,000 the county could buy a lot of radios, said Maas, but the maintenance contract isn’t just for radios, said Degen. It also covers consoles and towers.

Maas said she’d like to hear from Motorola before making a decision, but Supervisor Chris Montross said he’s worried about the timeline. Humphrey had asked for a decision before the end of last month.

“I think they’re trying to back us into a corner that doesn’t exist,” said Maas.

Supervisor Seth Meyer said he’s also received calls from emergency personnel who like the system the county has. They don’t want to change to another, Meyer said.

No one wants to change, said Maas, but the county will have to raise taxes to renew this contract and upgrade equipment and will have to cut the budget somewhere to pay for this system every year.

“I don’t think it hurts to give [Motorola] a week to come in,” Maas said.

Other supervisors reluctantly agreed. “I don’t think it’s a problem to wait a week,” Degen conceded.

Motorola will be scheduled to talk to supervisors at 10:15 a.m. Friday, Nov. 21 in the East Annex, 970 Court Ave. in Marengo.