An article from the Dubuque Telegraph Herald:

County officials call E911 radio system success

Ribbon-cutting ceremony: Agencies can use latest communication advances

After more than six years of planning, development and implementation, the Dubuque County E911 Service Board celebrated the completion of its $3 million, 800-megahertz emergency radio system with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday at the Dubuque City/County Law Enforcement Center.

According to Dubuque County Chief Deputy Ken Runde, the project manager, the state-of-the-art voice and data communication system serves every public safety agency within the county. Various departments are able to communicate without going through a dispatch link.

The system also includes service to local hospitals, the Dubuque Regional Airport and the Dubuque County Conservation Board's park system.

The system is a public/private partnership between the E911 Service Board and RACOM Corp., of Marshalltown, Iowa. The partnership allows the service board to own a number of tower sites that provide radio coverage to all county public safety agencies through the RACOM network and use the tower sites the company owns.

"We had some kinks and bugs to work out," said Runde, adding the contract with RACOM was formally accepted in July.

The partnership allows county public safety agencies to communicate from anywhere within the RACOM network, which covers 88 percent of the state of Iowa and portions of surrounding states.

"The agencies benefit from the latest in communication technology at less than a third of the cost of owning a private system," Runde said. "The RACOM Network also serves the agencies' mobile data needs by allowing field access to crime and other information databases."

In early 1992, county public safety agencies became aware that expansion of its radio communication system was not possible because of a lack of availability of high-band radio frequencies. The agencies and the service board decided to research a move toward the 800-megahertz frequency band.

"Before we went to this system, Dubuque police and our department couldn't talk to each other at all," Runde said. "This system has tons of additional things that makes our job a lot easier."

In November 1994, Dubuque County voters approved an increase in the E911 surcharge, paid on each phone line in the county, from 25 cents to $2 per month to pay for the new system. The increased surcharge was for a 24-month period, after which it reverted to $1.

Leonard J. Koehnen, of Woodbury, Minn., was hired in October 1995 as the project's engineering consultant. He prepared the bid specifications for the project.

The project was bid in December 1996, and in February 1997, the service board accepted the bid of RACOM for an Ericsson/GE system.

After the contract was entered with RACOM, the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors agreed to loan up to $1.3 million to the board to help complete the purchase of the system and save interest costs. The loan was to be paid back over seven years after the project's completion.

The cost of the project was $3,055,274. According to Runde, because of the timing of the project and payments, the board was only required to borrow $286,320 from the county, which will be repaid by the end of the 2001 fiscal year.

The system is maintained through the county-wide $1 surcharge which generates about $500,000 annually.