FARMINGTON — Franklin County communications Director Stan Wheeler presented commissioners Tuesday with an estimate of $488,000 to implement a radio over Internet protocol system and improve the emergency communications system for the entire county.

The county had a comprehensive study done by Communication Consulting Service Inc. of Gray that was recently finalized. It determined what needs to be done to upgrade the county system. Rick Davol, president of the company, identified “quite a number of deficiencies” in the system, including poor radio coverage in many areas of the county, and made recommendations to fix them.

Wheeler broke the upgrade into steps to get the work done.

The cost to get started is $145,000 to get immediate needs addressed. After factoring in about $62,000 in remaining Homeland Security Grant funds and $27,000 in tax-increment financing funds, the amount needed from the county is $73,200 in next year’s budget for this step. Additional funds would be requested in ensuing years to build a more stable communications system.

Wheeler will make the same presentation to commissioners at about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at the county courthouse during budget talks with some Budget Committee members present. Commissioners will decide if they want to add the money for the improvements to the preliminary proposed $5.8 million budget for 2015-16.

The Dispatch Advisory Board made up of police and fire chiefs, emergency medical responders and dispatchers among others previously voted to support Wheeler’s proposal. Members supported him during his presentation to commissioners Tuesday.

Davol concluded “that in order to maximize the communications between all facets of the public safety community we need to immediately begin construction of a radio over Internet protocol based system. Once in place, that system will give Franklin County a strong, stable infrastructure backbone that can be expanded in the future as needed,” Wheeler said in his written report to commissioners.

Communications are “extremely poor” in the Weld/Carthage area. Cost of the project is $34,290 and includes radio over Internet equipment, other associated equipment and labor. The site is owned by Weld and the town would need to give permission.

At the Mosher Hill site in Farmington, law enforcement and fire radios are on a 100-foot antenna, leased by Franklin County from land owner Tom Eastler. A very short distance from this tower is a tower owned by Tri-County Emergency Medical Services. Davol recommends moving the law enforcement and fire radios over to the Tri-County EMS tower, where the emergency management agency radio is located. Cost is estimated at $74,985, including the radio over Internet equipment, labor and associated equipment.

The most complicated and costly of this entire project is upgrading equipment at the dispatch center, according to Wheeler’s report. The console at the center is 10 years old and there are mobile radios in use as base stations at the center. The cost to replace the console and buying seven new base station radios and related expenses is estimated at $206,460.

One of the problems Davol identified in his study was that some towns were unable to clearly receive fire pager tones and radio traffic. Among those towns are Strong and Philips.

Other issues and fixes are identified in Wheeler’s report, including installing radio over Internet equipment at a tower site owned by the town of Jay to help increase communications in the southern part of the county. The cost for the Jay project is estimated at $73,165.

There are also recurring annual costs for Internet service.

Under the $145,000 plan to be reviewed Wednesday, is the Mosher Hill site project for about $75,000, upgrading but not replacing the dispatch console for $54,000, putting in radio over Internet protocol equipment in Weld, Phillips and Strong, annual cost of $7,200 for Internet service, and a one-time fee of $10,000 for Davol. In the second phase of the project he would write requests for proposals for equipment and other needs, and review submitted proposals, among other work to move county into the third phase of construction.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net