County nixes $37 million bond refunding

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County nixes $37 million bond refunding

Posted by

Susan Norman

in Top Stories & Breaking News, Winder Archives

Friday, April 13. 2012

Comments (9)

Barrow County will have to find another way to pay for the federally mandated upgrade of its radio communications system this year. Barrow County commission chairman Danny Yearwood told the Winder City Council on Thursday night that because of unfavorable changes in the bond market, the county government is not moving forward with the planned $37 million bond refunding.

The refunding was to have yielded about $1.8 million in interest savings, which would have been enough to pay for the initial phases of the $3.7 million narrow-banding project. The federal deadline is Jan. 1, 2013.

“What we have done, we’ve missed the window… and right now we couldn’t get but $800,000,” Yearwood said. “It wouldn’t be feasible for us to move forward.”

Nonetheless, the council voted 5-0-1 (with member Ridley Parrish absent) to approve a related amendment of a sales tax agreement that — if the bond market were to improve again in the coming weeks — would help the county move quickly to take advantage of it. The amendment to the 2012 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax agreement calls for the county government to tap all of the savings to pay for its radio system improvement. Otherwise, the cities would be entitled to share 40 percent of the interest savings.

Winder’s approval of the 2012 SPLOST agreement amendment followed by three days the unanimous approval of the Braselton Town Council. However, Auburn Mayor Linda Blechinger has delayed taking the SPLOST amendment to her council, because the county has provided the cities with no related documents of the bond refunding or the narrow-banding project for review.

Yearwood said he would be meeting Friday with municipal representatives to answer their questions.

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#1 We Missed The Window? WE? on 04/13/12 at 11:14 AM [Reply]

WE MISSED.... NO, Dumbwood YOU MISSED the window

#2 Stop the B.S. on 04/14/12 at 10:43 AM [Reply]

There is no mandate to upgrade. The narrowbanding requirement means your existing VHF/UHF radios and infrastructure reduce bandwidth to 12.5KHz.

Most radios and infrastructure made within the last 10 years are capable of this by simple reprogramming and retuning. Not hard at all. An inventory of existing radios and systems, schedule the work, and do it in phases. A small fleet like Barrow county could be done in 7-14 days at a cost of less than $300K max for labor and replacement of units that are too old.

Some radio vendors are really piling on the B.S. thick. At a time when we are trying to find money to keep fire trucks rolling and deputies on the street, now comes this parade of manure about mandated upgrades. A handful of people are making bank and we're all paying for it.

#2.1 mandate for non public safety on 04/16/12 at 09:30 AM [Reply]

while public safety is not mandated in this, just encouraged, also yes the big company from schaumburg is terrible they import slaves, I mean workers, house them three and four to apt with one and wo bedrooms and oay them minimum wage and charge back for food and rent that to be honet is ok, but also charge for cartage to and from the business park be it only two dollars each way it is still a racket.

#3 Blue Falcon on 04/14/12 at 06:11 PM [Reply]

The way Motorola does it is to sell the top of the line equipment, and stop service to legacy equipment forcing customers to upgrade. Even if the current 10 year old radios are still servicable, the Motorola shop may not do work on them. Thats the way it works.

The only other option is the county employ personnel themselves to maintain the equipment.

#4 Stop the BS on 04/14/12 at 06:51 PM [Reply]

There are tons of other competent vendors such as Kenwood, Harris, Icom, Vertex Standard and Hytera that all sell radios and infrastructure that are just as good, if not superior to Motorola.

If Barrow county refuses to shop around, then they are stupid and deserve to get hosed. The city of Canton bought a Kenwood Nexedge VHF trunking system for a fraction of what the local Motorola dealer quoted them for comparable Motorola system replacement. The Nexedge radios also sound better and operate on very narrow 6.25KHz. And they were 1/2 the cost of Motorola. The officers love them.

#4.1 Anonymous on 04/15/12 at 01:03 AM [Reply]

Which of these companies do you work for? You sound like you have a personal stake in this issue.

#5 Stop the BS on 04/15/12 at 02:53 AM [Reply]

If you're talking about me, I don't have a dog in this race. I'm just tired of seeing our governments get raped and pillaged at a time when some of us in public safety are trying to figure out how to keep officers on the beat, fire stations from browning out, and school teachers from being layed off.

I've worked in the public safety communications business for 25 years. And in those 25 years, I've seen every form of game played, mostly by that one vendor with the bat winged shape logo, used to hoodwink taxpayers out of money. In the early days, there weren't many choices. The Japanese radios weren't of ample quality, poorly supported, and often not compatible (thanks to proprietary trunking systems pushed by well, guess who again...)

Over the last decade this has changed. Those vendors build just a solid a product as Motorola, and sell for considerably less. At the end of the day, this is a win-win for us in public safety and the taxpayer, as we get radios and systems that do the job they are supposed to, and money is saved which, at this time, is critical for many of us. That money diverted from overpriced proprietary radios and systems can pay those teachers, police and keep fire stations open, and pay for much needed road improvement projects.

That's my interest. How about yours?

#5.1 Anonymous on 04/15/12 at 10:16 AM [Reply]

I have no interest in this issue whatsoever; it was clear from your remarks that your bread is buttered by some corporate entity other than Motorola. The substance of your remarks may be correct. However, it's worth noting that you are not an unbiased source since you admit to working in the "public safety communications business for 25 years." This may well qualify you as an expert -- just not a disinterested party.

#5.1.1 The Truth on 04/15/12 at 11:37 PM [Reply]

I work for a government authority, not a private entitiy, so your assertion that my "bread being buttered" by any radio vendor is completely untrue.

What is true is that Motorola in particular has fleeced the taxpayers of this state for years, selling systems with no performance clauses, perpetual costly upgrades, and proprietary features. Now that other players have come to the field with lineups that are agressive, it is time that those of us start putting out real, true competitive RFP's and going with the best value for the money spent. Something that, under Georgia law, is easy to side step if one is willing to "pay state contract price".

This cuts out competitive bids from other vendors. Look at Rockdale counties' twisted procurement process for replacing their 800MHz analog Smartnet system. Despite Harris offering the SAME hardware at HALF THE PRICE, they made up their minds to feed the pig from Schaumberg. Rockdale will raise taxes through a SPLOST to pay for it. Harris wasn't even considered, and in fact, the Harris rep was silenced at a public meeting and the proposal went unconsidered.

It's nonsense like this that we all pay for. I am a taxpayer like you, paid by taxpayer dollars. The people of my community butter my bread, but they won't be able to for much longer if we keep bleeding money the way we are doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

By any other defintion, that is insanity.

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