County commissioners approve $848,000 for emergency services

A major upgrade of Lincoln County’s emergency communications and records systems will cost $848,000, slightly less than law enforcement officials originally estimated.

Sheriff Darren Short said representatives from international telecommunications giant Motorola adjusted the price tag after engineers reviewed the project. The much-needed overhaul will address the county’s dispatch and radio systems as well as its records management software.

County commissioners gave the sheriff’s office the green light to pursue the upgrade in October and approved the funding Dec. 18.

In October, officials said a multitude of problems had beset the county’s outdated emergency dispatch equipment, forcing employees to rely on salvaged parts to keep it running. Key components were nearing the end of their lifespan, officials said.

Similarly, the sheriff’s office’s record management software, developed in-house in 1995, was in danger of becoming incompatible with federal systems.

Officials, including then-County Administrator Darren Coldwell, bemoaned the price tag, but described it as a necessary undertaking.

Short told county commissioners that the extent of the problem only became clear in the time since he was elected the county’s top lawman in 2018.

Given the few potential vendors, officials in October said they could not put the project out to bid and instead had to ask for quotes.

By sticking with Motorola, the sheriff’s office saw savings in time and money, Short told county commissioners last week.

“It’s basically an upgrade of what we had,” Short said. “If we had to put out [request for proposal] we would have had to get a radio engineer from the very start and would have had to pay a consultant $50,000 to $75,000 to go through the system … It would have been a complete rebuild.”

The upgrade also will save the agency 10 to 12 hours of labor swapping out radios in each of its vehicles, Short said.

“It should just be a plug-and-play process,” Short said.

Had the county gone with a new vendor, the entire system would need replacing, said County Commissioner Mark Peck (D-1).

“If we were starting from scratch, but we already had the Motorola infrastructure, all of that would have all just been gutted and thrown away,” he said. “The key is this an upgrade to the current system.”

Officials expect it will take between four and six months to complete the work.

The upgrades have the added benefit of making it easier for sheriff’s deputies to share casework with police officers in Libby, Troy and Eureka.

Money for the project will come from the county’s roughly $2.9 million payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) fund. County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) said the expenditure proved the wisdom of saving the fund for unexpected costs. Without it, the county officials would have had to come up with the money elsewhere, he said. County Commissioner Josh Letcher (D-3) said the project underscored the need for a capital improvement plan going forward.

“Merry Christmas,” Peck told Short after the board voted unanimously to approve the spending.

“This is every birthday, Christmas and anniversary for two or three years, at least,” Bennett said.