Monday, March 17, 2008

Washington County Radio System Under Budget

Excellent.

M/A-COM Inc., a Massachusetts subsidiary of Tyco Electronics, will be paid $10.3 million to provide an emergency radio system for Washington County, under a contract that the County Board approved Tuesday.

The contract requires M/A-COM’s digital system, including vehicle radios and hand-held portable radios, to be reliable at least 95% of the time over at least 95% of the county. The system, to begin operating in late 2009, is to replace aging radio equipment used by the county Sheriff’s and Highway departments, all municipal police and fire departments, and emergency medical services.

[...]

But Sheriff Dale Schmidt said one of the towers, on Jefferson St. in West Bend, might not be able to support the additional weight of an emergency system antenna. Building a tower there would increase the final contract cost.

The board had budgeted $14.6 million for the project.

The contract is to buy antennas and other tower equipment, vehicle and portable radios, and consoles and computers for four dispatch centers. In addition to the Sheriff’s Department, the county plans to provide radios, consoles and computers for dispatch centers in West Bend, Germantown and Hartford.

This system is sorely needed and has been a long time in coming.  I’m happy to see it coming in substantially under budget.  Let’s hope the final bill remains within budget.

(3) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2002 hrs
Law + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin + Technology

  1. Kinda makes you wonder who set the budget for that item.  If you say you are willing to spend $250 for a pair of tennis shoes but find a perfectly good pair for $100, you’re not really much of a frugal shopper.

    Then again, maybe the budget was set at a fair price and it really did come in under.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2008 at 2219 hrs


  2. It under “budget” and nothing has be done other than a press release?  The city of Milwaukee has been upgrading to a M/A-Com system since 2003.  Their under budget number was $15 million. The system is not up and running and is rumored to be way over budget.  If you do an internet search on M/A-Com and budget you’ll see how many systems really came in for.  If you read the article in the Daily News the radio upgrade committee really did not want any discussion on the system.  When they said the price was only good until the end of month that would have been my walk-out point.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 18, 2008 at 1757 hrs


  3. Then again, maybe the budget was set at a fair price and it really did come in under.

    That would suggest government may not always be incompetent and/or corrupt, so let’s not get crazy.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 18, 2008 at 2036 hrs


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