TROY, OHIO – Miami County public safety leaders and elected officials will be hearing more about options for how police, fire and EMS workers communicate on the job.

Options for the communication system and in turn radios in use every day across the county through the Communication Center are being explored by local agencies along with the center board. The county has had a county-wide center for dispatch and operations since 1990.

While the county sales tax pays for the 911 center’s operation and and maintenance of the communication system, the cost of radio purchases remains with the local governments and volunteer fire departments.

The center board recently heard a presentation from Mike Browne, a consultant with SSC working with the center, about the upcoming decision on what direction the county should pursue in the next phase of the county-wide system.Browne subsequently talked with the county commissioners about the options.

“As you know, there is a lot of technology involved in these communication systems,” Browne said. “The devil is in the details when you are trying to put these things together.”

Browne provided a breakdown of options, noting pluses and minuses of each and estimating 10-year costs for each option ranging from $3.2 million to $6.27 million.

The decision on direction is particularly important now for the city of Troy, whose police and fire radios are scheduled to be replaced in the next three years, said Patrick Titterington, city service and safety director. Troy’s radios are among the oldest in use in the county.

The city’s 2015 budget included $50,000 to replace one third of the radios.

The city has a maintenance agreement for this year on its existing radios but needs to start replacing them this year, if possible, Titterington said.

“With several competing radio manufacturers, we may be able to get more competitive pricing if any radio would be able to work on our system, which currently they do not. I don’t think we have a radio manufacturer preference, but I do know we’d like to see some competition and possibly some price  breaks,” Titterington said.

Commissioner John “Bud” O’Brien is chairman of the Communication Center’s board. “The good news is we are not in a rush. We have time, but this is something we need to keep talking about,” he said, acknowledging in discussions Troy’s need for a decision.