By Ed Richter, Dayton Daily News
Original publication date: Jan. 9

Lebanon, Ohio — It was one of the first 911 communications centers in the state when it was completed in 1989.

However, new technologies and a growing county demanding more services has stretched the Warren County Communications Center to the point that it needs to be upgraded to meet the county’s public safety needs.

When the county established the center, it was paid for through a five-year, 0.5 percent piggyback sales tax. The original plan was to provide 800 mhz radio service, 911, two towers built that used five radio channels, as well as issuing a set number of portable and mobile radios to public safety agencies around the county at a cost of about $3 million.

The communications center has 36 employees who work 12-hour shifts to provides public safety and public works dispatching for the most of county, said Bill Becker, county emergency services director.

Only the cities of Franklin and Lebanon do their own dispatching. In addition, the county also provides all the radios, portable and mobile, to all public safety agencies.

The county has been looking at options to upgrade its radio system to current standards and technologies as well as new federal standards. It will require new dispatch consoles and equipment as well as two more towers to be built in Clear-creek and Harlan townships, said Paul Kindell, county telecommunications director.

The cost for upgrading the current radio system is estimated between $10 million to $13 million, depending if the county decides to buy or lease the new equipment or it could possibly piggyback with an adjacent county that has the newer, updated technologies, he said.

Kindell said piggybacking with another county, such as Butler County, could be an option because that county’s system is very new and has the capability of also operating the technical operations of Warren County’s dispatch center.

“We’ve been self-maintained for a number of years to save money,” Kindell said. “But Motorola doesn’t make the parts and (circuit) boards anymore for this system.”

To keep the system operating, Kindell has resorted to going to the Internet to find a dealer who has used circuit boards compatible with the current system.

He also said if the county would need to add more dispatchers in the future, it would be difficult because the computer software isn’t made anymore.

In addition to having the outdated hardware and software for its dispatching system, Kindell said the narrowing of radio bands is also a factor because of the popular use of digital television and cell phones.

David Gully, county administrator, said how to pay for it has not been determined.

Warren County Commission President David Young said he’d like to see a consolidation of dispatching operations.

“If it’s economically feasible, I would like to see it done for the entire county,” Young said. “It makes sense for ‘Big Brother’ to handle these services.”

Young said “upping taxes isn’t on the agenda” to pay for the upgrade or billing public safety agencies a per dispatch charge.

“There are so many other things we can do before raising taxes,” he said. 

Copyright © 2011 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy