Greenwood moving forward on police radio upgrade
Almost a year after the Greenwood County Council approved a lease agreement with Motorola to purchase hundreds of radios that feed into an 800 megahertz system, the equipment is making its way into the city’s police department.
Known as Palmetto 800, the statewide network connects more than 750 public safety agencies to a single communications grid.
“That gives us interoperability with the sheriff’s office, with the volunteers and with any state officials that may come in,” City Manager Charlie Barrineau told the Greenwood City Council on Monday.
In December, the county council finalized a $435,000 contract with Motorola, which provided 400 radios. Upgrading emergency communications equipment was identified as a top priority and included in a list of 27 items to be funded through capital projects sales tax dollars.
Barrineau said the city will continue to maintain a series of repeaters that can be used as a backup system if the 800 MHz radios go down.
“I want to be honest with you all. While these radios are under warranty for a year, the replacement cost is tremendously more than what we were paying on the other equipment,” Barrineau said.
Also Monday, the council gave preliminary approval to a request by Lander University to rezone a handful of properties it owns from residential to industrial professional.
Greg Lovins, Lander’s vice president of business and administration, said the school has no immediate plans to develop the sites, but rezoning them is part of the school’s overall long-term planning.
“We’re really looking at all university and board foundation properties to see just what the best future use will be,” he said.
City/County Planner Phil Lindler said Lander officials approached his office to ask for the zone change.
“All of these right now are residential of some kind but if we bring them under the IP umbrella, Lander is able to do what they intend to do with the properties, whether they be used as parking lots, classrooms or dormitories. It gives them the maximum possible flexibility,” he said.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on: Oct 17, 2017
By ADAM BENSON abenson@indexjournal.com