Boone County Joint Communications enters agreements with several local agencies to upgrade radio system
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Boone County Emergency Management is continuing its multi-million dollar expansion of radio upgrades after the Boone County Commission and the Columbia City Council passed several Radio Grant Program measures on Monday and Tuesday.
Through the grant, agencies can receive portable, hand-held radios that are similar to walkie-talkies or mobile radios that are mounted and typically used in vehicles. Some agencies also requested pagers.
Tuesday morning, the Boone County Commission approved radios for several agencies. According to county documents, the Ashland Police Department requested 15 portable and five mobile radios valued at around $148,000. Boone Health requested 31 portable and six mobile radios for their ambulance team, valued at around $296,000. The Boone County Courthouse also requested 13 portable radios valued at around $94,000 for the county's court marshals.
Boone Health spokesperson Christian Basi said the hospital moved to the new system to keep up with the latest technology for when they work with other public safety partners.
"If you have an event where you are looking at, for example, mass casualties, where you have many different people injured, there might be worse than injuries, and you have multiple agencies responding, it's critical that you have technology that can talk to one another," Basi said.
The commission previously approved the Hallsville Police Department receiving $116,000 of equipment earlier this month. This includes nine portable and seven mobile radios, according to city documents.
The Centralia Police and Fire Departments were also approved for equipment by the commission in early June. The fire department requested 24 portable and five mobile radios as well as 24 pagers. The police department requested 15 portable and 12 mobile radios.
The Columbia City Council also approved radios for city agencies on Monday, valued at around $3.8 million in total. The police department would receive 237 radios and 119 mobile radios valued at just over $2.5 million. The fire department would receive 71 portable and 55 mobile radios as well as 32 pagers valued at a little over $1 million. The city's airport would also receive eight portable and four mobile radios as well as two pagers valued at a little over $100,000 dollars.
The Boone County Commission has final approval over the grant money.
Columbia Fire Department Chief Brian Schaeffer reports said the fire department currently relies on a "runner" to share information from inside a building to outside personnel or a telephone from inside the building they are responding to, if it's not damaged.
"It's personnel-intensive to do that to move people from an IDLH, or, an immediately dangerous life and health environment, outside to talk to somebody to basically play telephone," Schaeffer said.
The radio grant program integrates a new radio system across all of its agencies. It is upgrading from “the legacy VHF radio system to a countywide interoperable 800 MHz Project 25 (P25) Phase 2 radio system,” according to Columbia city meeting documents from Monday night.
The new system uses shorter wavelengths when carrying messages and can penetrate through metal and concrete structures.
The BCOEM is also in the middle of getting grant funding for the University of Missouri Police Department, MU Health Care, Southern Boone County Fire Protection District and Boone County Fire Protection District.
The county began saving up for the radios in 2013 through the Boone County 911 Emergency Service Sales Tax. The entire radio program is expected to exceed $11 million. The sales tax was previously used for the construction of the BCOEM building and other technology improvements. The tax is expected to also help pay for the office's switch to the updated Next Generation 911 system that many agencies are upgrading to across the country.
"We are now able to make that promise that we've had to the community as well as our partners to get this infrastructure up, get the technology updated, and to be able to provide these radios to our community and our responders," Boone County Joint Communications Director Christie Davis said.
Davis expects all county agencies to make the switch to the new radio system by March 2027. Schaeffer added that radios for the CFD are expected by Dec. 1, 2026, but adds that the date can be affected by manufacturing delays.
"The taxpayers' dollars for years have been collected waiting for this day to be able to purchase the equipment, to be able to purchase users, mobiles and portables, station alerting, all of these things are finally coming to fruition, which is great to see," Schaeffer said.
Davis said the BCOEM has been in close communication with vendors and expects equipment to ship on time.
They know that these purchase orders are coming very soon and they know that we're hoping to get those to them by the end of this month," Davis said.
Davis adds that she expects the transition into the new system to begin in October, with plans to have various agencies practice using the system during Mizzou football games at Memorial Stadium following building renovations.
"We will probably start with some of the smaller agencies just to see how the system is working and making sure that we have a burn-in period to make sure we are covered as is expected," Davis said.
