On April 28, residents in King County — including Redmond — will have the opportunity to vote whether or not to update the area’s emergency response radio network.
If passed, Proposition 1 — a nine-year, $273 million levy — would allow the county to update its communication systems for police, fire, Medic One and other emergency first responders.
Max Brown — campaign manager for Yes on Public Safety (which supports Prop. 1) — said other organizations and agencies that use the radio network include local hospitals, utilities and schools.
The current system being used was designed in 1992.
“It’s getting up there,” Brown said about its age.
The network is made up of 26 transmitter sites — or individual towers — and Brown said the system is used about 1,000 times a day as local dispatchers use it to connect with fire, police and other first responders. He said Prop. 1 would pay to replace the current towers with more powerful transmitters for more adequate coverage.
“They’re lifelines,” Brown said.
He said the current radio network — which serves all 39 cities in the county as well as unincorporated King County — was designed and built to cover a smaller population and geographical area.
“There are dangerous gaps,” he said about the system’s coverage in relation to the county’s growth.
In an email to the Redmond Reporter, Mike Titus, president of Redmond Firefighters Local 2829 IAFF, said the outdated radio network they work with is a serious liability to their firefighters.
“Sometimes our firefighters have to use separate radio channels from police officers and other first responders to compensate for gaps in the radio network,” he said. “Many times, there have been dropped or missed transmissions between units.”
Titus added that there are geographic areas where radio coverage is “spotty or non-existent.”
“This is a dangerous situation to be working in, both for first responders and the people they serve,” he said. “Our public safety professionals deserve the tools they need to get the job done. It is unacceptable that the radio link between our firefighters is so outdated that it compromises our ability to communicate during life-threatening situations.”
Titus said Prop. 1 would make sure they have the tools they need to get the job done.
“We need a radio network that will allow us to communicate consistently with each other and with other emergency responders,” he said. “Continuing with the current system puts emergency responders and the public at risk.”
According to the Yes on Public Safety website (yesonpublicsafety.org), the proposed levy will cost 7 cents per $1,000 assessed value. This comes out to $26.46 per year for a median home of $378,000. The actual cost of the project is $246 million, but this does not include financing, the website states.
