Board approves purchase of 12 new vehicles and new radios for Sheriff's Department

 

[August 25, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

At the Logan County Regular Board meeting Tuesday, August 21, the board voted on the purchase of 12 new squad cars and new radios for the Sheriff’s Office.

Safety Committee Vice Chairman Scott Schaffenacker brought forward the two motions for these purchases.

The first motion was to approve the purchase of 12 new squad cars for Sheriff’s Office on a 3-year lease in the amount of $138,821.46 per year from Jim Xamis Ford Lincoln.

The second motion was to approve the purchase of new radios for the Sheriff's Office in the amount of $144,399.20 for the equipment and $9,814.00 for the service contract and installation in two payments, one for this fiscal year and one next fiscal year, from Barbeck Communications.

At last Thursday’s Board Workshop, Sheriff Steve Nichols shared updates on the need to replace the cars that all have high mileage on them and a radio system that often fails them.

Nichols said he contacted Jim Xamis through the Bob Ridings Corporation because they carry the state bid for the squad cars.

Nichols said after getting the original bid, he had the pricing compared with another agency and then went back to Mr. Xamis and got a better price. Xamis’ price was $600 to $900 a car more than another agency not in the county, but Nichols said he feels it is better to stay local in case something happens to the cars.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Nichols said after listening to the board last Thursday, he went out to Xamis and told them they need to come closer to the other agency on pricing. He said their new bid is within $250 a car of what Landmark Ford bid, cutting down the gap by 75 percent.
Nichols said the new prices are $32,675 per car instead of $33,110, so the prices came down dramatically.
Ruben asked for the new total.

Nichols said he would have to find the new total for all the cars combined.

Ruben said to change the motion to say the amount was not to exceed $138,821.46 per year. The price will be added in later.

The board approved the motion with 8 yeses and 1 abstaining. Voting yes were Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, David Hepler, Gloria Luster, Chuck Ruben, Bob Sanders, Scott Schaffenacker and Annette Welch. Kevin Bateman abstained. Dave Blankenship, Bob Farmer and Gene Rohlfs were absent.

Before voting on the motion for the radios, the board heard from Matthew Beck and Eric Smith, representatives Barbeck Communications.

Beck said after a lot of trials, demos, and various testing done throughout the sheriff’s territory [with the radios], they were able to cover 99 percent of the territory in an outdoor environment and it was not much worse in an indoor environment. He said with the new system, the department will be able to communicate all the time instead of just some of the time and the Sheriff can talk to almost any other department in the state of Illinois.

Beck said in the state of Illinois, there are 5,000 radios on the system. It is maintained 24/7 and there is a two-hour response time if something goes down. Since “down time” for equipment is very concerning, Beck said they work hard to get it back up.

Beck said in the Central Illinois area, Springfield, Champaign, Decatur and several others have this system.

Beck said these radios have a life expectancy of eight to fifteen years and are very rugged and durable.

Smith said Motorola has a deferred financing plan for a year. The department will get the equipment now but will not start having to pay until a year from now.

Smith said Motorola recently upgraded the prison site and doubled the capacity of their communications system.

Smith said Motorola takes care of maintenance as part of their state contract. The system is also overseen by several state agencies such as the Illinois State Police, Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the Fire Chief Association, the Police Chief Association, and several others involved that make the system work.

The system they will use is Starcom, which is what the State Police use, and it operates with all agencies.

Sanders said he has used Starcom and not found any dead spots.

Beck said they recently replaced and overhauled the communication system in Douglas County and it now works much better and is more reliable with more electronics and new technology.

Luster asked about the maintenance agreement.

Beck said it is a three-year agreement. If anything goes wrong with the radios in the first three years, Motorola Barbeck will replace them.

All nine board members present voted yes on the motion for the purchase of the new radios.

[Angela Reiners]