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Hundreds of first responders attend forum on Washington Co.’s new emergency radio system

By Mike Jones 7 min read
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Members of a special panel tasked with addressing the new Morotola emergency radio system prepare for Wednesday night’s forum that attracted hundreds of first responders to South Franklin’s fire hall.
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Numerous handheld radios from Motorola were displayed for first responders to view during Wednesday night’s meeting.
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More than 200 first responders from across Washington County packed into South Franklin’s fire hall Wednesday night to learn more about the county’s new emergency radio system.

More than 200 firefighters, police officers and paramedics from across Washington County packed into South Franklin’s fire hall Wednesday night to learn more about the county’s new emergency radio system, with many coming away from the meeting encouraged while others still had questions about how it could impact their operations.

The two-hour meeting briefly touched on a variety of topics, including how the new Motorola Solutions system will function when it’s operational in late 2026 or early 2027, along with how the county’s public safety committee and its consultant plan to implement it.

“This has been a really, really long time in coming,” county Commission Chairman Nick Sherman told the group gathered in the fire department’s social hall. “We saw there were connectivity issues (with the radio current system).”

In September, the commissioners approved the $24.445 million contract with Motorola, with Sherman and Electra Janis voting in favor and Larry Maggi voting against it. Sherman and Janis helped to lead Wednesday’s meeting and spoke briefly, while Maggi had a prior commitment and was unable to attend.

The biggest concern from fire departments, many of them made up of volunteers and working on tight budgets, is the ability to purchase new handheld and mobile radios that are compatible with the Motorola system. Sherman said the contract includes “subscriber units” for the departments, but they would also look to use Local Share Account gambling revenue grants and federal funding to help supplement any shortfalls.

There were also many questions from rural fire departments asking whether there would be reliable radio coverage in the sparsely populated areas where they work.

“If you don’t have coverage, your radio is a brick,” said Scott Neal, who is the program manager for Mission Critical Partners that advised the county on the process and is now helping to implement it. “Everyone is going to be on the same system. It’s going to be countywide.”

Neal and John Breon, who is Motorola’s project manager overseeing installation of the county’s new radio system, both said there will be 95% coverage using mobile radios typically found in vehicles and 90% reliability using handheld portable radios. But there were still some areas on the maps Breon presented showing less coverage in the southern and western areas of the county.

“Right now, we’re in the infancy stage of the project,” Breon said.

Once construction is complete, he said Motorola representatives will be going out into the field with Mission Critical workers and local officials testing quarter-mile quadrants to ensure that all areas have adequate coverage, even if they need to add “repeaters” to bolster the digital signal coming from 14 radio towers spread out around the county.

“It’s going to be a heckuva lot better than what you have now,” Neal said while admitting there might be some dead spots. “We will talk with the county about what kind of enhancements they will need to make.”

The system will be using an 800 MHz signal rather than VHF, which the panel said is better suited for the county’s needs, even though the latter is better to transmit over hilly terrain. The digital signal will also be more reliable for longer range, the panel claimed, although unlike analog that still offers some communication abilities even as it fades, digital drops completely once it’s out of range.

Westmoreland and Fayette counties are using the 800 MHz digital system – with Allegheny County in the process of implementing it – and can be hooked into Washington County’s radio system, if needed. But there were concerns from departments along the Greene County line to the south and West Virginia border to the west since those use VHF, raising questions if firefighters on the boundaries will have to maintain two sets of radios while coordinating mutual aid.

Morris Township firefighters submitted a question asking “if this system works in Peters and North Strabane, how will it work” for their department. Sherman said the radio system should function in every community, and promised they would work hard to ensure it does when they implement it.

“They’re going to work the same everywhere,” Sherman said, noting that the current radio system has shown limitations in populous places such as North Strabane. “There are peaks and valleys everywhere.”

After attending the meeting, Morris Township fire Chief Dave Dietrich said he was encouraged about the radio system, although he still had some reservations.

“I’m thinking if it’s going to do everything they say it’s going to do, I think it’s going to be a good thing,” Dietrich said. “If it doesn’t improve or even gets worse, I think we’re all in trouble, or at least some of us are. But they seemed to have a plan and know what they’re talking about. I hate to say it, but our fate is in their hands.”

He said they might have to reconfigure some of their radio systems in order to communicate with mutual aid stations in Greene County, which they will have to figure out as they move forward with the new radio system.

“I’m just hoping what they’re telling us, they’ll hold to their word on that and make sure it’s right before they (finish),” he said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait. Time will tell. We’ll keep a positive attitude.”

North Strabane Director of Public Safety Mark Grimm was pleased with Wednesday night’s presentation and thought the turnout showed great interest in the project.

“This project is long overdue,” he said. “We’ve been dealing with radio issues for probably well over 15 years and there never seemed to be a fix. … The biggest thing is not only is it a benefit for first responder safety, but also for our residents. I was impressed by it and I’m looking forward to it and we’ll see where it goes from here.”

Canonsburg fire Chief Tim Solobay, who served as state fire commissioner a decade ago, came to the presentation skeptical of the radio project but left with an optimistic outlook.

“If everything happens the way they say it’ll happen, then it would be impressive,” Solobay said.

He wanted to hear more about why a previous radio system designed by MRA Inc. of North Strabane was rejected since the county had already spent nearly $9 million on equipment in 2023. The commissioners approved a $22.545 million contract with MRA in March 2023, but Sherman preferred the Motorola system, so he worked to terminate that contract last year and move forward with the current plan.

“It was never addressed on why they canceled that contract,” Solobay said. “I’m hoping for the best, I really am. We do need newer technology and more accountable, reliable communication. We maybe didn’t have a lot of the issues, per se here in the center of the county as much as the outskirts or the rural areas of the county, but we still had our issues.”

Solobay, like many of the other first responders attending Wednesday night’s meeting, are ready to move forward with the county’s plans with hopes it will work out for the best.

“The proof will be in the pudding. Hopefully all the promises made will be promises kept,” Solobay said. “There’s still a lot of unanswered stuff until the old light switch gets turned on.”

Another educational forum will be held later this year to discuss specifications for the mobile and handheld radios, although the date of that meeting has not yet been set.

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