MOULTRIE — A cost of $4.4 million was the “hard number” given to County Commission in April on upgrading the County’s emergency services radio system. At the June meeting, a new “hard number” was given — $175,000.

County Administrator Chas Cannon said that, over the last several months, they’ve been meeting with Motorola and Southern Linc and that everyone affected by the radio upgrade had been in discussions with both sides.

“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,” said Cannon.

The Motorola proposal included two new towers, replacement of equipment and multiple new radios that could interface with the new system.

The new proposal is much more modest. Cannon proposed a package of 19 P25 Harris brand radios from Southern Linc — 15 portables and four mobile units that would be divided among the sheriff’s department, EMS and volunteer firefighters. Patches would let the radios interface with existing broadcast equipment.

“What we would like to do is start a trial. Need your approval to order them,” Cannon said.

He said that it would take about six weeks to get them in and then they would run the trial through the end of January 2025, testing the radios on key events like hurricane season, the Expo and holidays as well as general use.

He also said if they don’t like the results, they could go with a P25 system like Motorola proposed and the Harris brand radios would work on it, so the purchase wouldn’t be wasted. The patches, however, couldn’t be used with a different system.

Cannon said the Sheriff, EMA, EMS, E-911, VFD and County IT Department are all in support of the proposal, and he asked Justin Cox, Colquitt County Emergency Management Agency director, to provide commissioners with more details.

Cox said that the state tasked different carriers to provide a state-wide communication system that was reliable and robust and Southern Linc won the bid.

“So last year, the Georgia State Patrol and the Department of Public Safety and DNR went to this system,” he said and added that a lot of other state agencies were in the process of going to the system.

“It’s basically a P25 compatible radio but it uses an LTE network,” he said.

Cox explained that they would provide the main sheriff’s office channel, main EMS channel and the main volunteer fire channel each with a mobile radio. Then, he said, a patch would be built to connect the existing VHF system with the LTE network.

“So we kind of get the best of both worlds,” he said.

He said that they wanted to try it for six to eight months and see how it works and, if it works the way they feel like it’s going to, they want to come back later and start adding on to it.

“We did a beta test on this and, to be quite honest with you, it really moved the needle for me. It worked a lot better than I anticipated,” Cox said.

He went on to say that they had tried it last fall at the Expo, using just the Harris radio and their current system and the LTE made a huge difference.

Commissioner Barbara Jelks wanted to know what other counties were using this type of system and Cox responded that no other counties were using it, just state agencies.

“This is new. It’s new technology. The important thing to look at here is, at the end of the day, these 19 radios and the three radios that we’re giving them for the patches, these are not wasted. At the end of the trial, if this doesn’t work, these are still P25 compatible radios,” he said.

He said the radios were also tri-band, working off the LTE primarily and also the existing VHF system and the school board’s UHF system.

“They are expensive but they are not wasted, which is why they are expensive,” Cox said. “You asked us to bring you a less costly alternative, we think this is it.”

The commission approved the proposal unanimously.