Center County plans to replace 1,031 portable radios and 331 mobile radios, citing aging equipment, rural dead zones and rising replacement costs

Jacob Michael
Centre Daily Times

CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. — The Centre County Commissioners announced a $1 million federal grant award at their meeting Tuesday that will be put toward a major radio upgrade project for first responders across the county.

The grant was distributed through the Commerce, Justice and Science Related Agencies Appropriations Act and supported in Congress by U.S. Senators John Fetterman and Dave McCormick, County Deputy Administrator Natalie Corman said. The $1 million will serve as a kickstarter for a $4.5 million emergency radio equipment overhaul for first responders.

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In total, 1,031 portable radios, or compact, battery-powered radios designed for personal, short-range communication in a one-to-five-mile radius, and 331 mobile radios, or radios installed in and powered by vehicles with a larger, 10-to-20-mile communication radius, will be replaced.

“It is my understanding, at this point, that with some of these older radios, first responders are now getting parts off of eBay, they’re using duct tape and rubber bands to hold them together,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said Tuesday. “And the cost of roughly 1,400 radios, if we take the 1,031 and the 331, it comes to quite a chunk of change.”

Each radio costs roughly $3,500 to $4,000 to replace, Higgins said.

The radios are crucial for first responders, Higgins said, as some of the county’s rural areas have poor reception that makes using cellphones to communicate during emergencies a non-option. Currently, emergency communicators have coverage of 99% of Centre County, and Higgins said the project will mean full coverage.

At least $3.5 million remains to be gathered by the county to fund the overhaul, although Corman noted that fluctuations in supply costs could see that number rise over time.

“This is really one of those moments where this million dollars hopefully gets to kick off further funding opportunities that our community will benefit from every day, and every minute of every day in our community,” Corman said. “So it was critical for us to announce that we received this funding because, again, this really kind of kickstarts what we see as necessary for the rest of the funding to be further secured in our community.”

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The county will look to raise the remaining $3.5 million through a number of means, including federal or state grant applications, contributions from the county’s 35 municipalities and local donations.

The commissioners also urged residents to support their local fire departments, emergency medical services and police departments, with Commissioner Amber Concepcion sharing a reminder that the people involved with those entities — especially fire departments and EMS organizations — serve their community “very often on a voluntary basis.”

“Many of these ambulance and fire companies are doing their own fundraising efforts on a regular basis to keep their operations solvent,” Concepcion said. “Anything we can do to support those companies is really helping the public safety of all of us in our communities.”

A timeline for the radio overhaul was not shared Tuesday, although Emergency Communications Director Norm Spackman said that if, or when, the radios are eventually acquired, they will come equipped with the “newest technology.”

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