Emergency radio communications should be clear as a bell throughout Allen County when a new relay antenna is raised from 238 feet to 370 on a tower near LaHarpe.
County commissioners gave Sheriff Bryan Murphy thumbs up on the project Tuesday morning. Cost will run between $15,000 and $20,000, Murphy said, with funds coming from 911 emergency telephone reserves, which today contains about $144,000.
Murphy explained that when radio communications were moved to a more narrow band, from 25 megahertz to 12.5 by Federal Communications Commission dictate, dead spots became more of a concern.
“We had some before but narrow band transmissions caused more problems,” he said.
Also, Murphy said “it’s time to update our equipment. The relay antenna — on a tower owned by American Tower, Woburn, Mass. — is about 20 years old, along with the coaxial cable” that runs down the tower. “We want to be proactive and update the equipment before it starts giving us problems.”
Dead spots mainly are in the corners of the county. Messages are broadcast from the tower outside the county’s critical response center at 410 N. State St. Radio signals then get a boost from the relay antenna near LaHarpe.
Allen County pays $250 a month for access to the LaHarpe tower.
IN OTHER NEWS:
— Bob Hawk, representing the Iola Rotary Club, received permission to put a new roof on the structure housing the old county courthouse clock on the south side of the courthouse lawn. Numbers on the clock also will get a touch-up. Ron Boren, of Boren Roofing, said he would provide materials and labor for the new roof, which will have a pronounced slope rather than being flat.
Who will do the painting hasn’t been determined, but Hawk said he was confident Rotarians could find someone to do the work gratis.
— Terry Call, who does ambulance billing, said through the end of May charges totaled $610,531.44 for the year, which is about $160,000 more than both of the last two years. Collections for the first five months have totaled $302,041.52.
That puts the ambulance service, now operated by Iola, on pace to bill $1,465,275.48 and for collections to be $732,637.50. However, Call thinks collections will increase to well above the $750,000 that the county guaranteed Iola for operating countywide service.
Call pointed out a noticeable increase was for patients covered by Medicaid, at 73 in 2014 or 50 more than last year’s 23 after five months.
— Commissioners approved purchase of a service body for a Public Works truck from Midwest Truck Equipment, Wichita, for $6,739. That is $823 more than a bid from Knapheide, Kansas City, Mo. The Midwest body includes a receiver hitch and seven-way socket for towing, valued at $500. Knapheide did not include the hitch and socket in its bid because it wasn’t part of specifications.
— Murphy told commissioners his officers wrote 199 citations and made one warrant arrest from 136 vehicle stops during the recent Click It or Ticket campaign to encourage seatbelt use. Of the citations, 155 were for non-use of seatbelts by adults, eight for youths, five for non-use of child restraints and 31 for other violations. Seatbelt citations carry a $10 fine.
“Stops and tickets were meant to teach,” Murphy said, and that he hoped those cited learned from the experience.
