Radio upgrade pieces are all coming together

The work being done to upgrade the county’s emergency radio communications system is on target, as far as its construction schedule and budget are concerned.

The completion and activation date for the ARMER system still looks good for mid-summer. New communications towers, which will enhance radio coverage, have just been erected in Almelund and Center City, and the Nessel Township site was to be completed anytime. The tower in Center City is adjacent to the new sheriff’s communications and 9-1-1 center.

The tower in Nessel is on land owned by the township, and the fire department in Almelund has an agreement with the county allowing that tower on its property. In a few months-- when the 9-1-1 and new ARMER 800 mgHz equipment is activated out of the new communications center-- the plan is for staff to literally pickup their personal items and transfer directly out of the old comm center in the county jail into new work stations. The existing communications center inside the jail is obsolete, cramped and not secure. There are no plans for use of this space at this time.

The original concept for all of this, that the County Board began to pursue years ago, was to meet the federally-mandated radio upgrade deadline of 2013 as part and parcel of a new jail, on the east side of Center City. The county bought land at Hwy. 8 and Pleasant Valley Road, did improvements in conjunction with Center City, and called the entire parcel the “County Seat Business Park.” (One company, Smith Metals, is nearing completion of a new manufacturing plant in the business park.)

But the jail project was put on the back burner. Still, the radio enhancement mandate necessitated the county moving forward on a new comm center and radio coverage network. Jail update Development of the plan for a new jail is having a slow go. Sheriff Rick Duncan said last week 2014 is probably the earliest any final design could be pursued. The future jail project is in the schematic design phase, but that’s on-hold until visits to ‘similar’ facilities can be arranged. The idea of a similar-sized jail is anywhere from 90 to 120 beds and around $18 million dollars, according to the budget the County Board appropriated for schematics. Sheriff Duncan advised the sub-committee overseeing the Law Enforcement Center/ Radio Project that it needs to do site visits of existing jails to get a better idea of the new Chisago County Jail’s core functions. The “core” is considered that part of the facility that serves meals, affords space for medical care, houses the laundry, heating and ventilating systems, etc. At some point the actual start-up bed number, plus the eventual inmate capacity of a new jail need to be set, in order to size core functions appropriately, added Sheriff Duncan.

The county commissioners had voted (Walker and Robinson opposed) in their final business meeting of 2011 to direct Klein McCarthy Architects and construction managers to draw jail schematics. That agenda item from the sheriff last December, seeking some kind of action, was in response to concerns the state will pull extra beds granted conditionally under former sheriff Todd Rivard’s administration.

Jail Administrator Brandon Thyen explained last week that the Department of Corrections has been directly involved now. Compliance officials have agreed to back-off on deleting all the extra beds which the existing jail was granted. Thyen said maybe half the 14-bed exemption will be eliminated, due to lack of programming/space for inmates. The DOC is willing to relax concerns about the jail’s mechanicals and structural shortfalls as long as there’s discernible progress being made for a new jail, he added. “The heating and cooling issues are not going to go away,” Thyen said of the current jail. And, expenses to board-out inmates are an on-going matter. There’s an average of 55 inmates per day that the county is responsible for and room for 40-some to be jailed. Generally the county’s been transporting at least four per day to jails elsewhere. For January and February 2012 $25,000 had been expended from the sheriff’s boarding-out budget. The sub-committee also briefly reviewed what should be done with the existing jail when a new facility opens. County Administrator Messelt suggested the best marketing approach is to raze the jail and the stucco storage building (old Center City telephone office), and combine the lakeshore lots “as a single parcel” for sale. Messelt observed that there’s an unavoidable need for analysis of the old stucco building for hazardous materials, which he thought could be done anytime soon. The Numbers The new radios and 800 mgHz network are being supported by an $11.3 million bond.

Minus capitalized interest and up front expenses there’s $10.8 million available. Pro-Phoenix, a custom records management system which is operational now, is at $1.36 million. The ARMER (federal frequency and power) upgrade is $10.9. Two metro state radio board grants of $1.6 million have helped fund this. The new radios will be partially funded through subscriber agreements with each city/fire department that gets on the system, but the sheriff will track about $48,000 additional in the radio costs for that department. The Comm Center is at $2.2 million, it was budgeted for $1.9 million. The architect’s fees are being covered by a dedicated accumulating “canteen fund” the sheriff maintains from proceeds of items inmates purchase.

Commissioner McMahon was assured at the sub-committee meeting last week that in the first years of operations (this and next year) there won’t be a tax levy impact. There are costs shifting from the current communications budget to the new, and the bond money is helping to even out the impact. But, county information services and technology director Jon Eckel cautioned that there will be a need to budget for covering costs of routine software and equipment replacements, and tower maintenance, in the near future. And, the sheriff is also assessed the yearly subscriber fee of $480 per radio, just like everybody else accessing the new UHF system, and there are 100 radios allocated to the sheriff budget.