Chatham issued the following announcement on Oct. 23.
On October 21, 2019, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve an agreement between the County and the North Carolina 911 Board for a $2.3 million grant to contribute to the upgrades of the county’s public safety radio system.
The funds will allow the public safety radio system to receive a complete overhaul from a VHF/UHF system to an 800 MHz VIPER (Voice Inoperability Plan for Emergency Responders) system. The money will go toward improving and/or installing key infrastructure such as towers, fire/EMS paging system and microwave equipment.
“Our current public safety radio system has been in operation for 25-30 years, and the upgrades are critical to allowing Chatham County to keep up with necessary technology as it responds to emergencies over the coming years,” said Mike Reitz, Chatham County 911 director. “The major enhancement will be that emergency responders – police, fire and EMS – can communicate better with one another and the emergency communications center.”
The upgrades will also allow Chatham County emergency responders to communicate with those in other municipalities and the state.
Work is already underway, and the public safety radio system upgrades are expected to be complete by summer 2021.
Original source: https://www.chathamnc.org/Home/Components/News/News/13417/19
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