BENTONVILLE -- The state's digital communication system could be a model to improve communication among the region's cities and counties.
"It's a state project at this point, but it's the next evolution in communication," Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7 and chairman of the Benton County's Public Safety Committee, said Wednesday.
Tonight’s Meeting
Benton County’s Public Safety Committee will discuss the Arkansas Wireless Information Network at 6 p.m. tonight in the County Administration Building in Bentonville. Joel Jones, committee chairman, said the county is looking at joining with the state and as many other area agencies as possible to expand the digital communication system.
Source: Staff Report
"They're using digital radios and trunking, getting away from analog systems where we have problems with towers dropping signals and if you're on one side of the county you can't hear someone on the other side of the county," Jones said. "The state already has some infrastructure in place in Benton County and across the state. The state's emergency management people use it, the State Police use it. But they're about the only entities in Benton County that use it right now. What they want to do is increase the use statewide."
Marshal Watson, emergency services administrator who oversees the Central Communications Center and other emergency services, said Benton County and Northwest Arkansas emergency communications is a hodgepodge of jurisdictions and systems. Rogers, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Bella Vista and Lowell have dispatch centers, while other agencies rely on the county's Cencom, he said. Most of those agencies have their own communication systems, although most also have some capability to use the state system.
Benton County's system is a mixture of technologies and systems put together over a decade or more. The county has considered shifting to a new system for several years, Watson said. A late July meeting with state officials has given that prospect more impetus, he said.
"We're just trying to move forward out of that meeting," Watson said.
Shifting to an all-new digital system could cost the county as much as $1.2 million over a period of about two years, Watson said. The cost could change depending on how many agencies are willing to participate, he said.
"The state is looking for all the partnerships that can be developed," he said.
Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins said his agency uses the Arkansas Wireless Information Network system as a backup and for the department's fire marshal.
"One of the dilemmas we currently face in Northwest Arkansas is some cities' communication systems are not compatible with each other," Jenkins said. "That is actually not uncommon in some of the larger metropolitan areas. It's that way in New York. It was that way in Tulsa when I was there. We in Rogers have a good, reliable radio system. We purchased it in 2005 and it serves us well. But it would be a logical next step for us to work with the state, the other cities and the counties."
NW News on 09/10/2015