Jul. 26—A presentation brought to the Wapello County Board of Supervisors caused a little bit of skepticism, but also addressed a potential need.
The supervisors heard a presentation from Chad Gappa, an account manager for Motorola, regarding the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System (ISICS), which offers approximately 95% mobile coverage for the state and allows for public safety entities to communicate with each other with better efficiency.
Wapello County currently does not have a tower, though there are 90 tower sites in 99 counties. Building out the system in the county would be an investment, but Gappa said it would be "scalable," meaning they could invest in what they deem necessary.
"The system has been put the test with derechos and other storms and natural disasters, but it just shows how resilient the system is," Gappa said. "The sites are all monitored 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by the state."
Motorola was awarded a contract in 2015 to create the system and agencies were already using it before it was officially accepted last year, Gappa said.
"I know this county is very high on the state's list. I know that it's working with the governor's office on state American Rescue Plan money, and if they get this money, they could put up a tower here," Gappa said.
Towers are typically 250 to 300 feet tall, Gappa said. He said schools, secondary roads departments, rural electric cooperatives, etc., are on ISICS aside from just public safety. He also said the only real expense to the county would be for radio equipment, whether it would be portable or mobile, but maintaining the towers would be done by the state.
"Every county is different on how they would get on ISICS, because a lot of it comes down to what type of coverage they want, and what kind of coverage do they get in the county," Gappa said. "Some want to put up additional towers, or enhancing what's already there. You could buy radios today that are ISICS capable and start using it.
"But it's totally scalable," he said.
Sheriff Don Phillips said the tower his office uses is "almost 10 years old."
"This was a pipe dream when they built our tower here, and it was a top-of-the-line system," he said. "Typically these radio systems last about 15 years, so we've been trying to come up with an option that works for us because we think we need to look forward to the next system."
County emergency manager Tim Richmond said the risks of not making some sort of upgrade could be costly, especially with how the public safety landscape has changed.
"The challenges we have today is just our workforce. A large majority of fire and EMS services are done by volunteers," he said. "And it used to be that they would respond and live and work in their home community. That's no longer the case and hasn't been for a while, so we're have to pull resources across the county."
Supervisor Jerry Parker believed the county doesn't really want to bond for a build-out of the system, especially since he's concerned out perceived untrustworthiness of the state government giving funding counties need.
"If you're buying the radios, and not doing the towers means that we have not improved ourselves very much, then we probably wouldn't be interested in doing it," he said. "You guys have more confidence in the governor giving the money out than I do."
Richmond said he's been working grants that could help address any costs, but it'll be a while before any of that comes to light.
"I think just not keeping up with the pace of the needs of our responders and our public is the downside," he said. "I'm a fan of the Dr. Seuss quote that 'the answers are easy and the questions are hard.'
"Whatever way we go, it will be a significant investment," Richmond said. "It's important to do it right."
— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury
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