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WBPD quietly upgrades radio system by Rick DeClue · News · January 12, 2017
A year and a half ago, the West Branch Police Department was under pressure to switch to a new digital system to coordinate with Cedar County dispatch.
Facing a December 2015 deadline, they received an extension from Cedar County Emergency Management board, giving them until Aug. 1, 2016.
Yet after that July 2015 meeting, WBPD took a second look at what had been a seemingly lesser option: a “multi-cast system.”
“After that, things fell into place fairly quickly,” Police Chief Mike Horihan said.
The solution meant making adjustments to existing city gear, filtering certain frequencies, adjusting antennae and cables and more.
The city had faced upwards of $500,000 for a “simulcast” system, what Horihan said was the better system, but that cost far too much for the city to afford because it meant building a new radio tower. The multi-cast system cost only “a couple thousand dollars,” the chief said, and Cedar County and the EMA absorbed the cost themselves.
“The simulcast was still the best option, but this works as good as our repeater did,” Horihan said.
The police chief said the WBPD had unplugged its repeater prior to the switch, which, after a couple of months of testing, put the new system in place about a year ago. After a year of use, the new system seems to be working just fine.
“It worked out and I’m very happy it works as well as it did,” he said.
The system carries all EMA information as well as the Cedar County Sheriff’s dispatcher traffic. The county provides dispatch service for both the West Branch Police Department and Fire Department.
In the end, the city was successful in maintaining its public safety needs and avoiding substantial costs anticipated when the conversion to all-digital began.
For many years, the city had operated with a local analog “repeater” tower that boosted county signals to overcome natural obstructions due to topography — hills and valleys — as well as man-made ones such as heavily shielded metal buildings.
With the county’s new system, the city’s analog tower became obsolete and the city faced costs estimated as high as $250,000 to become compliant and maintain effective communications. At one point, the city received a request from the EMA for more than $100,000 as an advance on the new digital repeater tower — to be paid within seven days.
In addition to informing the county that West Branch simply did not operate this way within its budget process, city leaders including the mayor, Police Chief Mike Horihan and Fire Chief Kevin Stoolman questioned why the taxpayers of West Branch were being asked to cover the cost of the tower when they already paid taxes for Emergency 911 services. Only a few smaller communities in Cedar County faced similar circumstances.
Approximately two years ago, the West Branch City Council hired an industry consultant to study the situation and look into possible options. The cost of the study was $18,000.
While focusing on the replacement tower option, which was a fairly standard response, the consultant also offered an option using a slightly different communication protocol than the county’s simulcast system. Horihan referred to the alternative as a multicast system.
This option eliminated the need for the new repeater tower in lieu of some much less expensive modifications to the city’s existing communication infrastructure.
To its credit, the EMA reviewed the option presented by the city’s consultant and said, “hmmm, that might just work,” according to Horihan.
The agency sent its technical advisors to West Branch to make modifications to the city’s antennae and other system components and conducted test runs. At least as important, there was no charge to the city for their work.
“The result was a successful transition when the EMA ‘flipped the switch’ on its new system,” said Horihan. “We had no breakdown in our communications.”
The alternative was critical to the police department, which already faced costs to replace many vehicle and hand-held radios with P- 25 digital radios - again, the industry standard. The chief was able to acquire the new radios over time as part of his department’s equipment replacement budget.
Stoolman said the fire department’s radio replacement had started earlier due to his reliance on dispatch from other jurisdictions. such as Johnson County, in his coverage of all or parts of six townships.
Horihan said he was grateful to the EMA for reconsidering a new replacement tower and the eventual outcome.
“We depend on the Sheriff’s Department,” he said. “Their dispatch service helps us provide the level of professionalism we strive for to serve the citizens of West Branch.”
City Administrator Matt Muckler said the city values the dispatcher services provided by the Sheriff’s Department and working with the EMA on such things as the county’s Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan.
He also noted that this process was an example of the city council’s effort to understand an issue and possible solutions before it makes a decision to spend taxpayer dollars.
— Gregory R. Norfleet contributed to this report
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