The $29.97 million upgrade will replace the aging, fault-prone current system.
Montgomery County on Thursday approved the purchase of a $29.97 million public safety radio system, paving the way for the replacement of an existing radio system that dates to 1996 and has recently been plagued by numerous failures and shortcomings. Commissioner Bruce Castor, who led the committee charged with the task of guiding the replacement process, attributed historic significance to the upgrade. "This is probably the most significant piece of legislation and the most significant decision the commissioners have made in the five years I've been a commissioner and maybe in the 28 years that I've served in county government," Castor said. The county's existing system, which was also built by Motorola, suffers from numerous drawbacks …
Parts from the manufacturer are no longer available for an aging system as potentially 'catastrophic' component failures loom.
The county's emergency radio system is now in a state of emergency. With many of the county's chiefs of police crowding its Norristown meeting chamber, the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Wednesday declaring that an "actual emergency exists" in the county's aging public safety telecommunications infrastructure. Commissioner Jim Matthews described the measure as a "Band-Aid" that gives the county "the ability to immediately respond to any shortcomings in the system." Those shortcomings are reportedly multiplying. Lower Gwynedd Chief of Police John Scholly called the increasing difficulty of obtaining replacement parts for the system a "major concern." "There are parts of the county radio system that are as old …
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Mr W G York
2:20 pm on Friday, January 11, 2013
lte 14 maybe? more ›