Butler County plans to negotiate price of $19.2M safety equipment bill

Butler County officials say there is room for negotiation with Motorola on the $19.2 million safety equipment upgrade and radio replacement.

Some local officials were taken by surprise at news of a huge replacement bill looming. Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones said they shouldn’t have been.

“We’ve known it was coming, we’ve been talking with the police and fire for a couple, three, four years,” Jones said. “We’ve been preparing for it, dreading it, but we knew it was coming.”

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Commissioner Don Dixon said they knew, but Motorola “pulled the trigger” quicker than expected and most conversations countywide have been contained within the police and fire departments and the sheriff.

“All the departments knew, I believe, it’s been discussed in the fire chiefs’ meetings and the police chiefs’ meetings,” Dixon said. “But a lot of the appointing authorities, the people who pay the bills, the townships, villages and cities, this is new to them.”

Fairfield Police Chief Mike Dickey said the the state price for the radios is $7,178, with a 27 percent discount it drops to $5,240, in a larger quantity closer to $4,000. In West Chester Twp. and Hamilton the replacement cost could be more than a $1 million. West Chester officials are recommending the trustees replace on an as-needed basis.

Dixon said the situation might not be as dire as they first thought. He said the estimates they’ve been given are a worst case scenario.

“Those radios are going to come last,” Dixon said. “There’s a lot of room for negotiation, what that price is, how that gets paid, how long that window can stay open so the smaller entities can have time to book the resources and buy them a little at a time.”

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Jones, whose office runs the system, said there are about 2,500 hand held radios among the local jurisdictions and the county, plus there are other departments like local roads crews and the engineers office that have the devises. County Administrator Charlie Young said only the public safety equipment is being considered for replacement at the county level.

The county fire and police associations are scheduled to discuss this issue on Aug. 24.

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