At the county board meeting on Tuesday, September 25, commissioners authorized the purchase of Highway Department radio equipment that will be compatible with the state’s new Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) system. The federal government is requiring states to abandon certain bandwidths and move to narrow band frequencies by January 1.
The equipment is expected to cost about $116, 641 and will include 42 radios installed inside vehicles and heavy equipment, 10 hand-held radios—three that will be “secure” for confidential communications among the county engineer, assistant engineer, and maintenance supervisor—and four base station units and antenna kits. Personnel doing things such as flagging and surveying will use the non-secure handheld units in the field.
A cost of up to $130,000 for the ARMER-compatible equipment is included in the 2013 budget, but the work needs to be done now, Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad said.
County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers has been talking to the board about the possibility of bonding for this cost rather than putting it in the tax levy. For now, the funds will come out of the department’s capital reserves.
In other highway department business, Sera Stevens, who is from Cook County but has been working for a southern Minnesota county, has been hired for the Highway Department clerk position.
County Engineer David Betts said they interviewed 10 good candidates. “We are excited to say we are fully staffed at the Cook County Highway Department,” he said. “We are very happy.” It will be the first time since he started a couple of years ago that the department has been fully staffed.
New assistant county engineer Sam Muntean started October 1.
Leave a Reply