Five Medina County safety forces have applied for $500,000 in state grants from the Local Government Safety Capital Grant program.
They are:
- Medina County Sheriff’s Office
- Medina Police Department
- Medina Township Police Department
- Montville Township Police Department
- Medina County Office of Emergency Management
- Homeland Security
Each agency would receive $100,000. The Ohio Legislature created the program last year.
If the grants are approved, the agencies will upgrade their radio system and purchase portable radios for police in Medina and Montville and Medina townships.
Each entity would donate $25,000 of the $100,000 for a new console that is needed by the Sheriff’s Office. The grant decisions are expected to be announced May 19.
“If the dollars are available, we’d place the order for the addition console and make the move,” Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell said Thursday during a news conference.
If the agencies don’t get the grants, buying the new digital radios might be too cost-prohibitive. The sheriff’s office upgraded its radio system in 2015 in what they called Phase I at a reported cost of $850,000.
Alan Close, president of Cleveland Communication Inc., which designs, builds and maintains public safety radio systems, said the sheriff’s radio system is designed to provide 95 percent outdoor coverage throughout the county using portable radios.
Jonelle Meredith, communications coordinator for the sheriff’s office, said the radios, known as APCO P-25, cost about $1,200 apiece for handheld products. They cost $1,700 or $1,800 for mobile radios used in police vehicles and about $27,000 for dispatch consoles. Meredith said the department would need six dispatch consoles.
The sheriff’s office wants to “co-locate” dispatch services with Medina police. Medina police already handle dispatching duties for Montville and Medina townships and the Life Support Team. When the move is made — the exact date has not been established — Medina police will have two spots in the sheriff’s six-person communications center, 555 Independence Drive, Medina.
“The idea of combining our applications is to co-locate the dispatch operations,” Sheriff Tom Miller said. “Medina will have its own (dispatchers) with the sheriff’s department. We’ll be sharing space, which is the purpose behind this. There will be some cost savings to that as we move forward and understand what needs to be done to make that work.”
Hanwell said he’s talked about this collaboration for at least 10 years.
“This seems to make the most sense,” he said.
He said it’s the ultimate vision of both departments to eventually combine the two operations.
Hanwell said the city has 10 full-time dispatchers, including one lieutenant that oversees the department, at a cost of about $1 million a year. The sheriff’s office employs 13 dispatchers and said its cost is about the same.
“One advantage I see — we have two dispatchers on each shift,” Hanwell said. “The sheriff’s department has its two or three. There are times when our dispatchers are not very busy and the sheriff’s department is being overrun, and vice versa. The ability to have those folks in the same room lends itself on the ability of assisting one another with ease.
“By having this all together, it just reinforces the efficiency, effectiveness and the collaboration that I think we are all striving for.”
Hanwell said eventually voters might be asked to approve a levy to fund the dispatch operations or possibly there could be a sales tax proposal.
“Once we get an outside funding operation to combine the two units, the advantage of that is theoretically, you could set up a controlling board or an operating board,” he said.
Medina’s dispatch center received about 48,000 calls last year or more than 130 per day.
“This is a significant part of our operation,” Medina Police Chief Pat Berarducci said. “The more we can improve it and make it more cost-effective, the better off every one is.”
The sheriff office’s communications department got 69,000 calls last year or about 189 a day.
If the departments receive the grants, they want to purchase new portable radios for Medina, Montville and Medina Township police.
“This move is more for the greater good for all the communities involved to increase safety and the ability for (responding) with each other,” Miller said.
Phase II of the program is getting the portable radios.
“This grant does not pay for everything that everybody needs,” Miller said. “It puts it in a strong move forward to achieve the co-location and make greater use of the 700 (megahertz) system we have in place.”
Close said the federal government wants all local, state and federal agencies on a common platform.
“The APCO P-25 is the standard the federal government has settled on,” he said. “As the agencies modernize their radio systems, they are encouraged through grant funding requirements to go to the P-25. Medina County has the P-25 standard on the air now. That will allow all the agencies to talk to each other on a common platform.”
Many of the police chiefs raved about the digital radios.
“It works great,” Berarducci said. “We went all over the county using the portable. With our evaluation, I don’t think we’re going to need the mobile units. We’ll just use the portable radios in the car. I talked from the outer limits of Montville and Medina Township and it’s crystal clear.
“It’s a huge improvement. We’re not going to face the dead zones we faced before.”