Apr. 26—The Payne County Board of Commissioners signed a $13.2 million radio communications contract with Motorola Solutions, and the radio committee met Wednesday for the project's kick-off and design review.
The proposed communications system, expected to go live by January 2025, is a five-site, six-channel simulcast subsystem at 700 or 800 MHz. It will also leverage the Oklahoma Wireless Information Network Core as the control center for two-way radio communication.
The sites are Stillwater (Boomer Lake), Cushing, Glencoe, Perkins and Yale. Payne County's emergency services will be able to use up to 10 talk paths.
New 12'x10' Motorola Standard Building shelters will be provided to house equipment for three of the sites. Each will have a diesel generator and an automatic transfer switch for backup power.
The design also includes 11 new dispatch consoles to be distributed among the City of Cushing (5), the Payne County Sheriff's Office (3), the Payne County Emergency Operations Center (2) and the City of Yale (1).
Committee Chairman Troy Choplin said in the meeting that the system is not just a convenience for the county's various agencies but also for the safety of its more than 80,000 citizens.
Local officials lobbied to update the county's "broken" radio network for more than a year and feared one would never come to fruition after the commissioners tabled the bid in December.
One of District 1 Commissioner Zach Cavett's major concerns was how the bid did not allow room for expansion. Tusa Consulting Services advised the board that Motorola could have provided better specifications for $13.2 million, but the radio committee's studies said the six channels provided built-in expansion.
"I think (the system) needs to be built right the first time and big enough to accommodate for any future growth that may happen," Cavett said in December. "I don't want to pay extra for something that will just fix us up for now."
The project's lead engineer, Amos Charles, said Wednesday that the proposed system gives the county room for an additional 400-500 radios and four consoles if it, for example, were to build a new fire station.
For now and the foreseeable future, the committee believes six channels and 10 talk paths is more than enough to support the county's needs.