A Lewis County 911 dispatch worker transcribes a phone call during her shift at the Lewis County 911 Dispatch Center in Chehalis.
Lewis County Communications is set to receive $22,580 from the Washington State Military Department in order to address issues in the radio system used to dispatch fire personnel and other first responders. The money comes from the State Homeland Security Grant Program and is available through August of 2023.
Currently, the county relies on two main radio frequencies to dispatch first responders. A tone is sent over one of those frequencies to activate fire stations. This opens up the possibility of getting “toned over,” 911 Communications
Administrator Scott Smitherman said. If first responders are speaking through the frequencies, the tone will override them, disrupting important communications.
“If our firefighters are out there, we don’t want to be toning over what could potentially be a very hazardous situation for them,” Smitherman said.
Now, the county is working to utilize a third, “tone-only” frequency — a largely mechanical project which involves setting up equipment to receive and interpret a frequency the county already has the rights to, according to Smitherman. The third frequency is currently accessible in much of Centralia and Chehalis, but the idea is to expand access to radio tower sites further east.
“This, in all reality, is not a very large chunk of money, and will not do very much for the radio services department,” Smitherman said. “Twenty-two thousand in the radio world, unfortunately, doesn’t do very much for us at all. We’re going to augment this with other funds to do even the slightest thing.”
The project to utilize a third frequency is estimated to cost $25,000, but issues in the county’s emergency communication system are much more extensive, since much of the infrastructure is antiquated. A study earlier this year estimated that an infrastructure overhaul could cost $7 million. Much of the equipment the county relies on now is over 20 years old, and incompatible with new software, according to Smitherman. There was a time when the county had to buy old replacement parts on eBay.
County Commissioner Bobby Jackson described a ride-along he was taken on with the sheriff’s office to see how complex terrain weakens the county’s radio and microwave communications. He said although county employees have done a commendable job keeping the infrastructure operationalized, it does need to be overhauled. But the county hasn’t figured out where the money will come from. After finding little prospect at the state-level, Jackson has reached out to U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Battle Ground) to see if federal funds are available.
“We haven’t gotten any real answers yet,” Jackson said. “We have to make every effort we can to figure something out … it’s going to take a lot of work to figure out how to pay for it.”
The county has received moderate grants in the tens of thousands of dollars from the state, but nothing hefty enough to begin major repairs.
“We’re throwing a pebble in the ocean,” Smitherman said. “The longer this takes the older this equipment is getting … somewhere, somehow, someone is going to have to figure out where we’re going to get this money from.”
