Greenwood County Council fast tracks radios
A top funding priority for Greenwood County first responders to be paid for through capital project sales tax dollars got fast tracked on Tuesday in a move expected to save more than $400,000.
The County Council unanimously approved a lease agreement with Motorola for the purchase of about 400 radios that into an 800-megahertz system – providing fewer dead zones for emergency response personnel.
Right now, Greenwood’s various agencies use different radio systems and have to rely on dispatch to bounce messages back and forth.
The project, listed third out of 27 on the list of items to be paid for by the special sales tax, was pegged at $4.1 million, with an implementation date in late 2018.
But Motorola offered a $435,000 discount and zero percent interest until November 2018 if county leaders moved forward now with a contract.
“I think this is a smart way of dealing with the money and addressing a strategic weakness we have right now,” County Manager Toby Chappell said.
Officials said it will still take about five months before the new radio system is ready to go.
Though he voted for the agreement, County Council chairman Steven Brown was not happy that administrators put the idea forward before receiving written conformation from local governments that they would be responsible for picking up user fees tied to the radios.
“I’ve been a town administrator in a 2,500-population town, and if you throw a $10,000 or $15,000 new fee on and they have not been notified properly, then shame on us,” Brown said. “If we need to vote on this tonight, someone has some homework to do before Santa Claus comes.”
Long said the sheriff’s office will have the highest user fee at about $47,000 annually. Chappell said he’ll contact local leaders and provide the council with an update.
“We’ve tried to do it the right way,” Long said. “We felt like this was a great opportunity for the county to save a lot of money and we would not be doing right by the taxpayers to sit back on this and wait,” he said.
Officials said approving the lease agreement on Tuesday was essential to meet a vendor deadline.
“The user fee question is not a question for today, that is a question for November 2018 or whenever you have finished the first two projects on the list. I don’t think the answer to that would affect the way you vote on this contract,” County Attorney Stephen Baggett said. “These radios have to be purchased whether it happens now nor whether it happens in November 2018 or whether there are user fees or not. The voters have already spoken.”
Contact staff writer Adam Benson at 864-943-5650 or on Twitter@ABensonIJ.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Dec 21, 2016
By ADAM BENSON abenson@indexjournal.com