Linn board sets budget for local ambulance radios

Linn County will foot the bill for about $246,000 worth of new radios for the county's three rural ambulance services, supervisors agreed Wednesday morning.

The North Linn and Lisbon-Mount Vernon  services will receive the equipment they requested last month, but the supervisors pared back the request from Center Point.

North Linn will receive the 12 portable radios, two vehicle-mounted radios, and the base station it requested. But Center Point and Lisbon-Mount Vernon will each get 20 portables and two mobile units.

Center Point had requested 45 portables and six vehicle units, said District 3 Supervisor Ben Rogers, D-Cedar Rapids - more than the other two agencies' total.

"I think Center Point and all the other ambulance services will have ample radios to protect not only their community but their personnel," Rogers said.

The cut drops the county's cost by about $121,000, to $245,620. That would save the county about $35,000 a year over the 15-year payback for a $7.3 million bonding package, Budget Director Dawn Jindrich said.

The board will take formal action Monday.

The radios are needed to allow the local agencies to communicate with police and sheriff's deputies after Jan. 1, 2013, the federal government's deadline for "narrowbanded" systems that will free up broadcast spectrum for more cell phones and mobile devices. The county, Cedar Rapids, and Marion are cooperating on an $18.2 million system to meet the new standard.

Initially told they couldn't legally provide the radios to non-profit agencies, supervisors reversed course last month after the county's bonding attorney told them such a move would be legal.

The county's fourth non-profit ambulance service, Cedar Rapids-based Area Ambulance, plans to buy its own radios.