By Dominic Adams
The Journal Gazette
STEUBEN COUNTY, Ind. — A communications company believes it has solved problems that forced Steuben County officials to turn off a new emergency radio system, but county officials want to complete more tests to make sure the system works.
Harris Radio Public Safety and Professional Communications found an interruption caused by a radio station operated by Swick Broadcasting, which operates WLKI-FM 100.3 and uses a tower in the 2700 block of Indiana 127 North, according to a statement on the Steuben County Sheriff Department’s Facebook page.
Emergency responders in Steuben County stopped using Harris’ Open Sky Radio system after emergency responders couldn’t communicate while responding to a stabbing.
Harris uses tower space from Swick Broadcasting for Steuben’s system and said the radio company was helpful in identifying the problem.
Harris revealed the findings during a meeting Monday with Sheriff Tim Troyer, county commissioners, Steuben County Communications Director Cindy Snyder and other emergency service personnel. Harris’ system went live across the county in February.
Troyer did not return phone calls Wednesday.
"(Harris) wants to make sure that this is working the way that we want it,” Snyder said. “They’ve tried to accommodate everything that we’ve had problems with. I’m very confident in what we’ve done and that it’s going in the right direction. Harris wants to make sure we have what we want.”
Troyer and Snyder decided to switch the county back to its old analog communications system after an April 5 stabbing near Crooked Lake, just outside Angola.
Police, firefighters and paramedics were unable to speak with one another using their radios and were forced to use cellphones to relay locations and information.
The county will use the old system until it is satisfied that Harris has addressed the concerns emergency services are having with the system, Snyder said.
The county has spent more than $3.9 million of Major Moves money on the system, according to the county auditor’s office. Major Moves money comes from the county’s share of proceeds from the 75-year Toll Road lease.
The problems should be corrected in a couple of weeks, according to the statement on the sheriff’s department’s Facebook page.
“We are not looking for a percentage. We’re looking for perfection,” County Commissioner Ron Smith said in the statement. “We are not going to put our people at risk.”
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