John Ramsey, Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)

The approximately 3,000 radios used by police, firefighters and emergency crews in Chesterfield County will be obsolete within four years.

Motorola — manufacturer of the radios and the computer system dispatchers use to manage 9-1-1 call responses — will in 2017 stop offering replacement parts and technical support for both.

Though it has been largely overshadowed by the $304 million in school projects, another question voters here will answer Nov. 5 is whether to allow the county to issue $49 million in bonds to help replace the most-used piece of equipment for first responders.

“It’s the backbone of our job,” Robert Lukhard, an assistant fire chief in Chesterfield, said of the radio system. “If one of us, heaven forbid, is in trouble, it is the link from inside the building to the crew outside the building.”

During a fire call a couple of months ago, Lukhard said, a disabled woman huddled in her bathroom unable to get out of the house. Using information relayed over the radio, he said, firefighters were able to find the woman quickly and save her.

Chesterfield police Lt. Wes Fertig said officers couldn’t do their jobs without a reliable communications system. And although the radios have worked well since the county bought them in 1998, losing manufacturer support for the system automatically makes it less reliable.

“It’s obviously important that up-to-date, recent information get put out to the officers in the field in real time,” Fertig said. “You don’t want them going in blind.”

A 2-percent meals tax voters will decide whether to approve is projected to bring in $8 million a year and help pay for the public safety upgrades as well as the school projects.

The county plans to use $12.8 million from its general fund over the next five years to supplement the $49 million in bonds for the public safety upgrades.

The entire plan calls for replacing radios, the computer program used by dispatchers and upgrading the 740 computers that give first responders updates in their vehicles.

The radio replacements, which would come first in 2015 or 2016, must be bought in tandem with Richmond and Henrico County. Chesterfield, Richmond and Henrico all work on the same radio system, which makes it easier to respond quickly to calls that are just across jurisdictional boundaries. It also allows for better communication among different departments during large-scale emergencies such as tornadoes.

The upgrades will also make it easier to communicate with Petersburg and Hanover County, which have newer systems that aren’t entirely compatible with the older radios.

Chesterfield plans the rest of its system upgrades for 2017 or 2018. Companies would have to bid to win the contract for each of the new systems.

The project is critical for public safety and must be done even if the meals tax fails, according to the county’s emergency communications director and budget director.

“In public safety and specifically in dispatch, seconds can save lives,” said Richard Troshak, director of Chesterfield emergency communications. “We don’t want to be in a position where we don’t have a supported system that doesn’t have a path forward.”

Chesterfield has faced a budget crunch recently, with tumbling home prices costing the county about 15 percent of its property tax revenue during the past five years, said Budget and Management Director Allan Carmody.

Without the revenue from the meals tax, other capital projects planned in the county will have to be delayed to pay for the upgrades, Carmody said. He said he hasn’t analyzed which projects would be delayed in that scenario.

“We believe we’ve put together a very solid plan that is focused on the two most critical responsibilities of government, and that is public education and public safety,” Carmody said. “And the story of what if, if the meals tax doesn’t pass and if the bond referenda do not pass, then we will have a hole in the funding plan for delivering these important projects and we’ll have to go back through a prioritization process as we undertake the upcoming budget preparations.”

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