Umatilla County takes on emergency radio system replacement

This story was published Wed, Aug 29, 2001

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - After being tossed around like a hot potato among Morrow County, Umatilla County and the Oregon State Police, the issue of who gets to put together a new communications system for the counties landed in the lap of Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty.

Doherty paused momentarily, took a deep breath and jumped into the project head first.

Each agency knew the VHF radio system emergency crews now use was outdated. When the wind starts blowing up dust, crews can be across the road from each other and not be able to communicate, said Cheryl Humphrey, spokeswoman for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.

Upgraded radio equipment was needed so fire, police and emergency crews throughout the two counties and Benton County could communicate if a chemical spill occurred at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. And the plan to buy 450 MHz radios has been in the works for more than a year, waiting for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to approve funding.

But even with $7.6 million set aside, nobody wanted to take the lead, order the radios and set up the system.

There was too much red tape at the state level for OSP to take the lead, said Chris Brown, the state's CSEPP manager in Pendleton.

"It would take us more than a year to get through the paperwork and would have to go before a special review committee," Brown said.

Morrow County officials thought Umatilla County was in a better position to take on the project, said Casey Beard, Morrow County emergency operations manager. Umatilla County had direct access to the money through the state, had more resources and also was in an existing contract with a communications company and technicians qualified to do the work, Beard said.

"They were also the largest user," Beard said.

The group even tried to contract the project out to the Educational Service District, which has the technical expertise within its ranks to carry out the project, Doherty said. But the district declined the offer last week.

That's when Doherty dug his heels in, gritted his teeth and accepted one more responsibility on behalf of the county.

But there are stipulations to Umatilla County taking on the project, Doherty added.

First, the group must be ready to purchase the radio equipment by Sept. 21, so CSEPP can save $701,000 by taking advantage of a deal from Motorola.

Second, Umatilla County will not advance any money, fees, associated costs or expenses for the project out of its general fund. All must be directly paid out of an account maintained by the Oregon State Police.

And most important, Umatilla County will have the final word in all matters.

"I'm saying if Umatilla County takes the lead, we want to be in control," Doherty said. "We would consult with everyone, but we don't want a lot of meetings to bog things down. We need to move forward."

Under the plan, the county will outfit emergency crews in Umatilla and Morrow counties and in Benton County with 450 MHz radios and adding five microwave towers to OSP's microwave network to support the radio communications systems.

And it all needs to be in place and operational before February 2003, the date the Army would like to start burning the 3,717 tons of chemical weapons stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Doherty gave Morrow County and state officials until Tuesday to agree to the proposal, so Umatilla County commissioners can sign off on it at their morning meeting today. Doherty would like to sign a contract with Motorola for the radios Sept. 19.

Morrow County and state officials didn't argue with Doherty and were more than happy to accept his terms.

"I know you put a lot of work into this, and I appreciate it," said Chris Dearth, project director for Gov. John Kitzhaber.

 

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