Starke County firefighters continue to voice their frustration with their radio equipment, despite the vendor’s assurances that it seems to be working better. Ted Hurley with J&K Communications was asked to give an update during Monday’s county commissioners meeting.
“It seems like the system is more stable than it was last year, so that’s good news,” Hurley said. “I’ve asked [service manager] Eric, has anybody really complained a lot now, and he says no. The complaints have gone down, so I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
But others in attendance Monday disagreed. Dave Pearman is the president of the county council and chair of the county’s communications committee. “I’m just going to call you out on this, Ted. This VHF radio system has not worked since we got involved with you folks,” Pearman said.
“Okay, stop right there,” Hurley interjected. “Let me make some comments before you get too far. You’re kind of accurate, but you don’t have the whole story, okay? First of all, the system does work better because the reason they went to this system is because they went to narrowband. Once you went to narrowband in 2013, most of your departments could not get pages.”
Pearman continue to argue that Starke County isn’t getting what it’s paying for, but Hurley said that many of the issues are not J&K’s responsibility or out of its control entirely. “If you want me to, I will shut the sites down and put the one site back up that you had and let you try it for a week and you will find out,” Hurley said.
“Well, you know, that’s a little dangerous threatening a government entity like that, Ted, so let’s back up for a second,” Pearman replied.
“I didn’t threaten,” Hurley said. “I’m just saying that if you want to understand it.”
Hurley said the reception issues in Washington Township could be solved with a new site. But Pearman said J&K had initially recommended against that, and by the time they changed course, the money was no longer available. In the end, Pearman agreed to take Hurley and J&K technicians on a tour of the problem areas, along with the county’s Emergency Management Agency and IT directors.
