The Starke County Commissioners heard from 911 Director Stacy Noonan Monday morning about new equipment for the Starke County 911 Dispatch Center.
Several contracts were presented by Noonan that came from J&K Communications who has been working with the county on radio and dispatch equipment since 2014.
Radio upgrades were approved to be done by J&K Communications at a cost of $73,192 which were budgeted out of the American Rescue Plan Act Funds.
A five-year service contract for $14,000 was also approved for service of the VHF radios. A five-year contract for service on the dispatch radios and dispatch console was approved for $26,000. Those contracts will be paid out of the 911 Fund that comes from the state which can be used for service contracts.
The commissioners also approved an update in the 911 servers and phone upgrades as they are at end of life and outdated. Noonan told the commissioners that if the last server goes out, the 911 service will be out and so it is necessary for these updates. They approved that contract at a cost of $194,047.37 which will come out of the Cumulative Capital Development Fund.
All votes were unanimous.
During the Starke County Council meeting on the same topic, Starke County Council President Dave Pearman said the communication committee has been discussing the equipment for a while and it is necessary to make these updates, especially the servers as the last 911 backup server is in service now.
He said there were a lot of items that were struck from the original proposal to get the cost down to where it is now.
When asked why there were no other bids or quotes obtained, it was explained that the company already has worked with the county and the county has the same brand of equipment and fixtures, and by going with a different brand with a different company could be costly to the county.
The service contracts end at the end of the year.
Councilman Todd Leinbach asked if a decision could be delayed to review the information and approve it in another meeting. Councilwoman Cassandra Hine said the quote was prepared in October and should have been presented earlier and to compare a quote to another company and recommended tabling the request. Councilman Bruce Bennett said the quote should have been brought before the council in October and he does not like being put into a situation where a decision is made in haste.
Pearman said that a different company would give a quote on a completely new system as they do not carry the brand already used in the 911 Dispatch Center and it would be considerably more than what was presented Monday night.
Noonan said the quotes were discussed with the communications committee to review the needs and funding before presenting it to the council. The county had a backup server until December 9 when it went into service so it turned into an emergency situation.
A motion made by Councilwoman Cassandra Hine to table the decision pending another quote and more time to compare the quotes in Executive Session to be held quickly after obtaining the other quote and the motion was seconded by Kay Gudeman. The vote failed by a vote of 4-2.
After a lengthy discussion with comments made about not being able to review the paperwork sooner or having a comparable quote from another company to make a more information decision, but the safety of the community is priority, a motion was made by Councilman Tony Black to approve the $194,047.37 quote to come out of the Cumulative Capital Development Fund which was seconded by Councilman Howard Bailey. Black, Bailey, Bennett, and Leinbach approved the motion, while Hine and Gudeman voted against the motion.
