Subject: [NEXTEL-1] County snags radio money

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 13:31:24 -0400

County snags radio money
By Bob Holliday
Pantagraph staff
BLOOMINGTON -- McLean
County government has been
awarded a $2.2 million
federal grant for a new
emergency-radio system that
county officials hope
improves safety for both the
public and police.

The grant will provide more
than 400 radios and 700
pagers for local police and

fire departments, seven consoles for the county's centralized communications
center and a special device at the center allowing communication between agencies
not sharing a common frequency.

'Very, very pleased'
"This is great news. We are very, very pleased," said McLean County Administrator
John Zeunik.

Lt. Mark Bailey of the McLean County Sheriff's Department was happy as well,
saying a new radio system has long been sought not only for public but police
safety.

McLean County Board Chairman Michael Sweeney said he hopes a new StarCom 21 radio
system can be up and running within a year or even sooner. The grant requires the
money be spent within a year.
McLean County was one of 17 communities nationwide getting Homeland Security
grants from a total of $79.6 million available.

St. Clair County, which will get $3.8 million based on population, was McLean
County's grant partner. The counties together sought a total of $6 million and
were the only communities in Illinois getting grants.

The fact that the counties got all they sought from the U.S.  Department of
Homeland Security illustrates "the quality of the application submitted and strong
bipartisan support in Illinois and Washington, D.C.," Zeunik said Thursday.
Some of the grant money could be in hand by next month, Zeunik said.

The federal money -- together with $733,000 in matching money from the McLean
County Emergency Telephone System Board, will allow the county to replace a
trouble-plagued E.F. Johnson 800-MHz radio system that sheriff deputies and police
from other agencies have criticized.

Complaints about poor reception with the Johnson system, which was into service
about six years ago, got so bad that both Bloomington and Normal switched back to
their 400-MHz systems.

However, McLean County government officials hope the StarCom 21 radio network
being built for Illinois State Police by Motorola is the solution.

While Motorola had hoped to test the 800-MHz digital StarCom 21 system in McLean
County during the summer, project delays have prevented this.

Zeunik said Thursday that he hopes Motorola is able to test yet this fall, because
seasonal changes, such as less foliage on trees, can affect test results.

http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/092603/new_20030926031.shtml

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