Council here has approved the purchase of a new $34,000 radio system that will simplify communication between fire departments in Wellington County.
Fire Chief Rick Richardson explained in a report at the Dec. 22 council meeting that for the past 12 years, Wellington County fire departments have been trying to renew their old paging/radio system to get all departments using an inclusive system with fewer dead spots and the ability to communicate between stations throughout the county.
“This has been an ongoing thing – (the) county has tried to get a radio system going, but nobody can agree on which one to use,” Richardson told council.
“With the decaying system failing, Minto, Mapleton and Wellington North received an extra frequency to get the northern stations off the paging system, allowing us to have a separate tactical channel for use among seven stations,” Richardson explained in a written report.
“If we get called to help or get help from Minto, all we do is switch to the Minto channel,” said Richardson.
With other municipalities, he explained, firefighters had to exchange a radio with the other department in order to communicate.
Subsequently, the report states, Puslinch, Rockwood and Centre Wellington went to the same Motorola 400 series system, to which public works departments in several municipalities have also changed.
“This system appears to work well throughout the county and has gotten Puslinch, Rockwood and Centre Wellington communicating with each other,” stated Richardson.
This left only Erin on the county paging/radio system. Richardson explained equipment supplier MRC has offered Erin a 10 per cent discount for 2015, plus $126 trade-in value for all of their old portable radios, and the opportunity to avoid a 10 to 15% 2016 price increase.
“Erin has received quick approval to do this and MRC has offered the same deal to the rest of the county to bring everyone together. On Dec. 18 Minto decided to take advantage of this mass purchase deal which leaves Mapleton and Wellington North remaining,” the report explains.
Delaying purchase to 2016 would have resulted in the loss of the special discount and trade-in offers and increased cost to Mapleton of $9,470 for the same system, Richardson pointed out.
Richardson also pointed out the switch will simplify operations for the communications centre in Guelph, which now has to deal with five different systems.
“If this went through they would have two, one for the city and one for the country.”
Mayor Neil Driscoll asked why the equipment had to be purchased through MCR, rather than the township’s usual provider.
Richardson explained the current supplier sells a Kenwood, rather than Motorola brand system that would not be compatible with the MCR 400 series system.
A recommendation to purchase the system was approved unopposed by council.
