MOULTRIE — The county has found a solution for the county emergency services’ antiquated radio system.

In March, Sheriff Rod Howell told the County Commission that his deputies could not communicate effectively with the radio system that they were currently using.

“I’m saying it now with the newspaper here. We cannot communicate effectively anymore as deputy sheriffs. I’m telling you,” Howell said.

Current radio system inadequate

Howell told of an incident where a deputy needed help on a call and could not get through to 911 and he said this wasn’t an isolated incident.

At an April meeting both E-911 Center Operations Department Head Theresa Warburg and Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Dustin Hart, who is also president of the Volunteer Firefighters Association, weighed in.

Warburg said when her department tried to do a radio check on the officers, they weren’t getting through. Also, the different agencies were not able to communicate with each other.

“It’s something that really needs to be done before somebody actually gets hurt,” she said.

“Our handhelds, outside of city limits? We’re dead in the water with our radios. The only defense we have is if we took it off our hip and threw it at somebody. We sure ain’t calling for help on it,” said Hart.

He went on to say that anything would be a huge improvement over what they had for EMS and the VFD radio system was so old that it was starting to have major issues.

Shopping for a new system

Howell and Emergency Management Agency Director Justin Cox started looking into options and met with Motorola about their P25 radio system. It had a price tag of approximately $4.4 million.

A $1.2 million grant from Congressman Sanford Bishop’s office was expected to offset some of the costs. The Southwest Georgia Regional Commission will distribute it.

When presented to the commission, there were concerns about where the money would come from to pay for the rest of the cost of the Motorola P25 system.

At the time, County Administrator Chas Cannon responded, “We’ll just have to look at that once it comes to us but I mean we could either finance it or pay cash for it.”

He added that there might be some money in the state appropriations budget next year that could give them some help.

Commissioners also voiced concerns about liability if the communication issues with the current radio system were not addressed.

“At this point, as of tonight, we’re open and who knows what’s going to happen. You pray to God that nothing happens but sooner or later something can,” said Commissioner Mike Boyd, a former Georgia State Patrol trooper.

New radio system proposal

With the June 19 deadline for the pricing that Motorola had initially quoted approaching, the commission was presented with a new radio system proposal at its June 18 meeting.

Cannon told them that he and everybody affected by the radio upgrade had been in discussions not only with Motorola but with Southern Linc, as well.

“And I’m trying to figure a way to get around the very expensive Motorola proposal and maybe come up with an alternative solution to that,” he said.

He then told the commissioners that he and staff came up with a package from Southern Linc that would include P25 Harris brand radios. At that time, he asked for the commissioner’s approval to order and try them out.

Cox said, “You asked us to bring you a less costly alternative, we think this is it.”

The commission approved both the purchase of the less expensive Southern Linc proposal and the trial of the radios through the end of January 2025.

Radio system beta testing

Now, five months later, at the Nov. 19 meeting, Cannon gave commissioners an update on the radios’ performance.

“I’d say excellent results, not just good, with the radio testing. Went through a couple of hurricanes, went through the Expo. The only thing that stayed up was those radios,” said Cannon.

County Commission Chair Denver Braswell told the commissioners that he had spoken to Cox and he told him that in an area in the county that nothing had worked in, the radios worked perfectly.

“So it seems that we’re gonna have a solution there. I talked to the sheriff today and asked him his opinion. He said, ‘Much to my disbelief, they are 100% better and that’s just the handhelds. They did an update and it made zero failures, so far.’ So, that’s the feedback from the beta testing, so far,” said Cannon.

He also said that they were moving ahead with the $1.2 million grant funding through the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission. It will cover the initial purchase from Southern Linc, plus any additional radios, he said.

“So, I’ve asked Justin to put together, basically,  a tree of assignments so we can get it all organized, laid out and get all the departments to buy-in on exactly who needs one and limit the amount of purchases to those that do need a radio versus everybody having a radio,” Cannon said.

He said they would try to keep it under $1.2 million, which will be a good bit cheaper than the $4.4 million alternative.

He also said that, so far, EMS, the Sheriff’s Office, the Volunteer Fire Department and E-911 each had a couple of the Southern Linc P25 Harris radios.

“I think the results have been really, really good,” said Cannon.