East Central Iowa News

Brad Pfantz, the fire chief of the State Center Fire Department, is working with Marshall County Board of Supervisors to establish better communication systems.

He spoke to them via conference call on April 15. For more than four months, he has brought attention to the issue. He used examples in the recent past where first responders could not communicate because the system went dark.

Another communication issue is that sometimes emergency calls had a disruptive sound in the background.

“I’ve talked to a lot of firefighters and EMTs in the county in the last several months,” Pfantz said, according to the Times-Republican. “There is a feeling of frustration that this isn’t being made a priority.”

Pfantz first brought the proposals to the Board of Supervisors on December 23, 2019. In his new proposal, he brought the price down from $5.5 million to $3.6 million.

Pfantz said this is a public safety issue, according to the Times Republican. During the meeting, he acknowledged the county's concern about using the essential purpose bond in order to help maintain the system.

Supervisor Dave Thompson did not think it was financially responsible to borrow money from the essential purpose bond to pay for recurring expenses. Also, he did not agree that the county was responsible to provide the fire department radios or pagers. 

Pfantz said the project would take about 18 months to complete, according to the Times Republican. His suggestion is the city acquire RACOM, which carries 498 subscribers, with 189 subscribers in Marshall County.

If the city does not buy it, then in 10 years they would pay $1.8 million in fees–not including maintenance.

Since he first brought the proposal to the Board of Supervisors, RACOM had not yet been contacted.

Pfantz said that it was the city council’s responsibility to protect those who could be harmed by a communication system that was not working properly.