DeWine proposes covering MARCS radios

In his proposed 202425 biennial budget, Gov. Mike DeWine is including a financial incentive to encourage local first responders and municipalities to upgrade their radios to the statewide Multi-Agency Radio Communication System, or MARCS.

The proposal comes in the midst of a controversy over emergency radios in Lorain County, with the county fire chief’s association and police agencies angered over a vote by the Lorain County Board of Commissioners to rescind a contract first responders said would modernize their aging communications systems.

State lawmakers are required to pass a biennial, or two-year, budget by June 30. The proposed budget will cover the years 2024 and 2025 and must still be presented to state lawmakers. In his State of the State address Jan. 31, DeWine proposed the state fully fund monthly subscription fees to local agencies for a MARCS upgrade.

“More than 3,000 first responder agencies in Ohio currently use MARCS to communicate with each other across jurisdictional lines,” DeWine said. “However, many others use different radio systems, often making communication difficult with officers from other jurisdictions.”

Commissioner Michelle Hung and former Commissioner Matt Lundy voted in December to accept a nearly $8 million bid from Cleveland Communica- tions Inc. for its L3 Harris radio system, paid for with American Rescue Plan Act funds. Commissioner David Moore was ill and did not attend that meeting.

Moore and newly elected Commissioner Jeff Riddell then voted to rescind the CCI contract over Hung’s objection on Jan. 9. They said the process that awarded the bid to CCI was improper and that they are working on a way forward to provide radios to sheriff’s deputies.

The state auditor’s office is investigating whether Hung or anyone else at the county, such as her boyfriend and former Lorain County 911 Director Harry Williamson, improperly steered the radio contract. Hung has denied any wrongdoing.

CCI has since sued the county for breach of contract, and the Lorain County Deputies Association filed a grievance over alleged violations of the health and safety clauses in its contract with the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office.

The Lorain County Fire Chief’s Association, the deputies association and Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti have said the L3 Harris radios are the best option, work in conjunction with existing Wi-Fi technology and will require fewer upfront costs.

The State Highway Patrol and Ohio prisons in Lorain County use MARCS, as do several police departments.

At least 75 out of 88 counties in the state also use MARCS.

The state currently subsidizes some of the cost of MARCS equipment for local govern- ments, which can include monthly charges of more than $400 for equipment and applications, according to documents on the Ohio Department of Administrative Services MARCS subscriber website.

Lorain County fire chiefs who applauded the commissioners’ decision to accept CCI’s bid in December, and criticized commissioners when they rescinded the contract on Jan. 9, said a MARCS radio system has other costs.

Fire chiefs respond According to the fire chiefs, MARCS radios require expensive antennas to work indoors. Installing bidirectional antennas, or BDAs, would be required for property owners under Ohio Fire Code and probably would cost thousands of dollars — all so firefighters could hear MARCS radio signals indoors, the chiefs have said.

“It’s not just as simple as, ‘Here’s your radios and here’s your system, Joe,’” Elyria Fire Chief Joe Pronesti said.

He said the fire chiefs have to have an open mind, but the Harris radios are “head and shoulders above MARCS” and use existing Wi-Fi signals without a large upfront cost for new equipment or BDAs.

Wellington Fire District Chief Mike Wetherbee said he has a great deal of respect for DeWine, but wondered if the governor was fully educated on the communication issues facing local fire departments like his.

“The fees are nothing compared to the five or six tower sites” MARCS will require to be built in Lorain County to boost the radios’ signal.

That cost, which Wetherbee said was estimated at $4.8 million, would be shouldered by Lorain County taxpayers. The equipment would then be turned over to the state for maintenance. Fire departments would also have to buy mobile signal repeaters and install them in fire trucks or command vehicles, also at an unknown cost. The cost to local schools, churches, hospitals and other private businesses that would have to install BDAs at their cost to comply with Ohio Fire Code is unknown, but would be in the many thousands of dollars, Wetherbee said.

And Wellington doesn’t have the money to pay to install BDAs in its school buildings and other businesses, he said. CCI, on the other hand, was willing to financially guarantee its equipment and take on the cost in exchange for monthly subscription fees, Wetherbee said.

The Avon, Avon Lake, North Ridgeville, Sheffield and Sheffield Lake fire departments use the L3 Harris system, “and what’s right for Lorain County is CCI building up the L3 Harris system,” Avon Lake Fire Chief Jeremy Betsa told the board of commissioners on Jan. 9.

“It’s not that we don’t like MARCS, but it’s not designed for interior firefighting and policing” of buildings, Wetherbee said. “It’s designed for highway patrol.”

“We want the better radio system to begin with,” Wetherbee said, adding that he has faith that the fire chiefs and the commissioners can work out a plan that satisfies everyone.

“It’s irritating because we know the bid process was done properly, transparently, and this is just more setback.”

Rochester to keep 35 mph zone on Route 511

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The village of Rochester will be allowed to keep portions of state Route 511 in the village at a 35 mph speed limit as long as it agrees to maintain the speed limit signs, Mayor Cindy Kurpely said.

The village and the Ohio Department of Transportation, which Kurpely said reached an agreement on the matter, have been at odds since late 2020, with village leaders and residents asking ODOT to keep the speed limit at 35 mph. ODOT had said the 35 mph limit signs did not conform to state law. It would be up to state lawmakers to change the law but “there was no appetite at the state level” to do so, Kurpely said Friday.

“What really needs to happen is that lawmakers and ODOT need to review and change their policies on the 35 mph, how they apply that 35 mph zone through municipalities and populated areas,” she said.

ODOT spokeswoman Amanda McFarland said the speed limit in that section of roadway always been 50 mph and that it was the village that posted signs that didn’t reflect the legal speed limit.

Village officials and residents said a higher speed limit endangers the safety of residents, passing motorists, and school buses. Several wrote to the Chronicle in late 2020 to complain about speeding motorists and the dangers of crashes on the curvy, hill roadways in and out of town.

A 50 mph limit is the legal limit from Griggs Road East to the village limits and south of South Street to the village limits, including a hill and a curve, according to ODOT. Those are the sections that concern the village and its residents.

ODOT “can only maintain and replace the signs that are legal and regulatory,” she explained in an email to the Chronicle-Telegram in February 2021. McFarland wrote that it was the village that posted signs “incorrectly indicating the speed limit was 35 mph.”

“By law, ODOT cannot install and maintain signs that do not reflect the legal speed limit of a roadway,” she wrote.

There is a legal process to lower speed limits on Ohio roads, but McFarland wrote that the village never made such a request.

A speed study can be done by the village or Village Council could pass a resolution asking ODOT to do one.

According to ODOT, a “speed zone” is “a section of roadway with a different posted speed limit than the statutory speed limit.” There is a page on ODOT’s website dedicated to speed zone rules and regulations.

Kurpely maintains that state law doesn’t appear to take into account the village’s school bus stops, “blind hills, curves, all of which we have in Rochester.”

For now, “the village will maintain the signs and do what we need to do to keep our residents safe,” she said.

“It’d be nice if the state would maintain things as they’ve always done, but if that’s what it takes to keep people safe, that’s what Rochester will do,” Kurpely said.