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The mayor for the City of Wyoming, Lisa Iverson, spoke during public comment at last week’s County Board meeting,  advising the commissioners it’s time to get started on the emergency radio contract language soon.

The agreement expires at the end of 2024 and elected officials are eager to start to tackle new terms, she added.

Mayor Iverson also said there ought to be a contract task force named to draft the new agreement.  She reminded the Board of  earlier issues on controversial radio cost appropriations in the initial program— and that some local government units felt left out of an important debate.

According to the latest system inventory Wyoming is among the heaviest ARMER contractors, fire and police have a total of 59 radios.  North Branch has 61. Lakes Area Police have 36. Stacy-Lent Fire Department has 35 radios and so on —as populations decrease.

Chisago County is in the ARMER system, the proprietary Allied Radio Matrix,  that connects agencies and emergency operations across the state.  It was developed in the wake of the I-35 bridge collapse and the inter-agency communications failures that showed themselves.

The ARMER program is not inexpensive.

County commissioners still have $2.2 million set aside out of the ARPA allocation being banked for ARMER, Iverson heard.  

Commissioners agreed the contract is complex and it would be good practice to get policymakers and officials involved now for a 2025 contract to become effective.

Commissioner Ben Montzka offered to sit in on the radio contract review meetings for Commissioner Jim Swenson, who was given the ARMER assignment but is out-of-state for  winter.   The first meeting for ARMER contract talks will happen fairly soon.  

County Administrator Chase Burnham asked for dates and times that work for Montzka and Rick Greene, the other radio liaison, and said he’ll report this information to townships and cities if they want to be involved in the early contract sessions.

There are 571 radios on the county ARMER system, including firefighters, law enforcement, etc.

There are per radio fees for “user” agreements and “subscriber” contracts which also cover replacement costs in the fee, that are owed the county.  Plus, the overall system charges for being a member of the metro emergency services board and for radio quantity.

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