ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9605010076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
BEDFORD
On a recent weekday, Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown was driving through Bedford and trying to radio a deputy on the other side of the county.
The sheriff and the deputy couldn't hear each other, so a dispatcher who could hear both of them had to tell each what the other was saying.
"That's our radio system," the sheriff said.
Similar radio blackouts are facts of life in other areas of the mountainous county, where volunteer fire and rescue squads routinely lose contact with dispatchers over about 35 percent of the county.
That's what prompted the Bedford County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to approve joining Amherst County and the cities of Bedford and Lynchburg in creating a new $11.7 million regional emergency radio system. Bedford's share of the cost, financed through 7-and 15-year bonds, will be about $4 million.
Though the new radio system's manufacturers say it will cover at least 95 percent of the county, the board didn't give it an easy pass. After about an hour of deliberation, the board voted 5-2 to buy into the system.
Supervisors Dale Wheeler and Bob Crouch, expressing fears that the system was not the most up-to-date that the market had to offer, voted against the measure.
"I'm holding out for the best, so that's how I'm voting," Crouch said.
Wheeler said, "It scares me to buy something I think is already outdated."
Even Supervisor Calvin Updike, who voted for the radio system, said: "I have decided to support this, but I don't like it. I don't like buying something that's going to be obsolete long before it's paid for. I think it's a little hasty."
At the heart of the debate was an argument about whether the new radio system - which uses analog equipment - is a better purchase in the long run than digital systems, which may become industry standards in five to 10 years.
An emergency communications director from Hanover County told the board Tuesday that Hanover purchased the same analog system from Ericsson in 1992. After getting the new system, Hanover still had communication blackouts, the director said, but Ericsson fixed the problems to the county's satisfaction.
An independent consultant hired by Bedford County spoke in favor of the analog system. Robert Forrest, an engineer with a division of Roanoke-based Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern, said newer digital equipment won't be available for a few years, and it hasn't been properly field tested.
If the Board of Supervisors waits before upgrading to a digital system, Forrest said, those systems will be cheaper and have fewer bugs. "It's like if you buy the first new car models right off the assembly line," Forrest said. "The first few models will have bugs. It isn't until the later models that the features are refined and the bugs are eliminated."
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB