At a meeting on Aug. 7, the Clinton Town Council unanimously voted to appropriate $279,000 to fund a new radio project for first responders, a key step toward completing a long-term goal for the town.

The council unanimously voted to fund a radio project that will allow for improved communication for emergency personnel. The total cost for the project is $4,148,000, which includes $1,100,000 in grant funds, $515,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and $2,533,000 in town funds

This issue dates back to the end of 2019 when the manufacturer of the previous radios stopped supporting the equipment. With the old system no longer supported, it was increasingly difficult to get the radios fixed, leading to concerns about the possibility of a catastrophic failure in an emergency.

“Radio communication remains the primary operating platform of all emergency service providers. Failure of radio systems to perform as designed could result in the catastrophic failure of service delivery and emergency operations platforms, exposing the first responders and those in need of their services to serious and life-threatening danger,” a memo from the Radio Steering Committee stated.

In 2020, the Town formed the Radio Steering Committee consisting of the town manager, fire chief, police chief, emergency management director, Department of Public Works director, and later the finance director to research products, vendors, and service providers to fix the aging communication infrastructure.

Town Council member Mike Shove congratulated the committee’s work on researching new vendors for the project, particularly for the work the members did in finding ways to offset the project’s cost.

“Almost 40% of this is offset by federal and state money,” Shove pointed out at the meeting.

Clinton Fire Chief Brian Manware explained the next steps to the Harbor News.

“The town has been setting aside funding annually in capital since 2020; additional funding was sourced for ARPA and both state and federal grants. Going forward, the equipment order will be placed; once all new equipment arrives, it will be built out at the vendor and tested prior to install at each tower site,” Manware said.

“The vendor must also program all equipment to Clinton’s standards and install it in each town agency vehicle. Once all that is completed, we will do acceptance testing prior to switching from the old equipment to the new equipment. The project is slated to take 12 to 18 months to complete,” he continued.

Additionally, the Town will be using new radio tower sites, which is expected to save the town money. The Town currently utilizes five towers – one located at the Clinton Police Department, which was owned by the Town of Clinton and has no charge to use, and one at the Indian River Recreation Complex, which is also town-owned and used with charge. However, towers on Cow Hill Road, Meadow Road, and Ridge Road are privately owned and managed, and the Town pays monthly rental fees for the use of space.

Manware said that the new system will still use the police department, Indian River, and Cow Hill Road sites, but instead of the Meadow Road and Ridge Road towers, the system will use towers at the Madison Town Campus and the Connector Water Company, which can be used with no fees charged to the Town.

“Changing to these new sites will improve radio system coverage and create an annual cost savings budget-wise,” Manware said.