Cost to replace public safety radio system startling State seeks short-term remedy

AUGUSTA – Only 14 states have statewide communications systems that allow all state and local pubic safety agencies to talk to each other in case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Maine is not one of the 14, and the cost of funding such a system – estimated in a consultant’s report at as high as $201.5 million – is causing sticker shock among state officials.

“It needs to be done,” Gov. John Baldacci said in an interview last week. “We saw that need on September 11. They all need to be on the same wavelength and be able to communicate statewide.”

But the governor was astonished to learn the estimated cost of the system that would allow all law enforcement agencies, fire departments and other emergency agencies to communicate in an emergency. The estimated $201.5 million price tag includes a statewide backbone of 146 radio transmitters and microwave towers as well as new radios for all state and local users.

“This option would best meet the requirements set forth by the state” was the conclusion of the report by the consultant, Macro Corp. of California. The study cost the state just less than $300,000 and was paid for by the state Bureau of Information Services.

Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara said last week the study was commissioned in 2002 to provide state officials with options for replacing an outdated state police communications system and to look at the additional needs posed by homeland security issues.

“There is no question that we will have to replace our system,” he said, “but I am not ready to make any recommendations to the governor or to legislative leaders.”

The consultant said simply upgrading existing systems, which are located on the VHF radio band, would cost nearly $27 million. But those frequencies are being phased out by the Federal Communications Commission. In five years, equipment that operates on those frequencies will no longer be made, forcing the state to move to different frequencies anyway.

To do nothing but improve the reliability of the present system would be “imprudent and an exercise in futility,” according to the consultants. The study recommends an entire new system that would operate in the 800 megahertz and 700 megahertz bands and would cost more than $154 million just for the Department of Public Safety, the Warden Service and the Marine Patrol. To expand that system to all local and state public safety agencies and provide all the field radios necessary brings the estimate up to $201.5 million.

“The state can’t afford that right now, and I am not sure when it could,” Cantara said. “I hope we can find some less expensive options, but there is no doubt this will be a substantial cost.”

The consultants make it clear it must happen because FCC policy changes will eventually require a new system, and construction costs will only increase in the future.

Maine Emergency Management Agency Director Art Cleaves acknowledges the necessity. He said state disaster drills have made clear the need for reliable communications among all agencies.

He said MEMA officials have found ways to work around the inadequacies temporarily, “but, yes, in an emergency where the cell phone system goes down, we would not have a way to communicate. We have got to have a long-term solution.”

Cleaves said MEMA considers development of a system a “very high” priority in part because it will likely take years to construct and will have a large price tag. He is looking at a short-term strategy that includes the use of satellite phones to assure emergency communications, but only as a stopgap and partial solution.

“Many other states will need to come up with an answer,” he said. “We are not alone with this problem.”

The 2002 Olympics were a boon to Utah, with the federal government providing $310 million for a statewide, interoperable communications system. Other states with completed networks, such as Michigan’s $230 million system, have been built over several years.

“The federal government must help, but it cannot afford to pay the whole bill,” Sen. Susan Collins said Friday. “I would hope we could use the FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] model where there would be a match required from the state and local governments.”

Collins chairs the Senate panel with oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She said there are five separate federal programs that provide grants to state and local governments for communications equipment, with no coordination among the programs. She said the federal government has to do a better job in making sure funds are used in the most effective way.

The Maine study indicates a new system could provide some savings to the state by consolidating dispatch and maintenance facilities. The consultant’s report suggests the microwave system would have additional capacity for state data transmission that could save the state the expense of leased fiber optic and other data circuits.

But Cantara said when he asked for dollar estimates on how much could be saved, the consultant “declined to be specific.” Cantara said any operational savings have to be clearly identified and substantiated before he can make any recommendations to the governor and Legislature.

“It is my personal goal to have a recommendation for next January,” he said. “We really can’t wait on this.”