By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
As recent storms and other emergencies have proven, 911 services are invaluable in the time of need. Tuesday morning, the Barton County Commission renewed a pair of contracts with Motorola Solutions to keep those operations in top form. Barton Communications Director Dena Popp presented to the commission.
"Back at the end of 2020, I'm sure the commission is aware, but we got SPARK (Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas) grants for two new 800 radio repeater towers," she said. "Included in that initial year was the maintenance portion of that. Years 2-5 were part of the contract although there were not able to be paid for with the SPARK money because of stipulations on the grant."
The commission agreed to pay $63,923 from the 911 tax fund to pay for annual support on the towers. The new contract will expire April 30, 2024.
"This maintenance contract is pretty important to us," said Popp. "This provides all of the upgrades to keep us connected with everybody else in the state. There are intrusion alarms on the doors. There are power alarms so if the power goes out we know it. Most generally, the generator picks it right up so it's just a brief interruption. We had the batteries replaced recently. It does heat alarms, so if the air conditioner were to quit and it gets too hot in there, it's going to notify mobile radio. It saves me a lot of having to drive to Susank on a regular basis to try and go monitor that all myself."
The commission approved another $34,575 to be used for radio console upgrades at the Communications Center. That will come from the general fund, but Popp said the technology has been a roller coaster ride and the service agreement will pay for itself in short order.