By Thomas J. Prohaska
The Buffalo News
LOCKPORT, N.Y. — A proposed $18.5 million contract for a major overhaul of Niagara County’s fire radio system remains on hold.
County Manager Jeffrey M. Glatz said this week he doesn’t know where the county will get the money for the project, which would be the largest building project the county has undertaken since the expansion of the County Jail nearly 20 years ago.
Motorola is the favored bidder for the project, which involves construction of as many as 14 new radio towers to improve communications among fire companies.
However, the project was withdrawn from a County Legislature committee agenda this week.
“We have one more meeting with Motorola,” Glatz said, adding the company would like the county to take action before the end of the year.
That appears unlikely. “We don’t really have a deadline,” Glatz said.
Acting Emergency Management Director John Cecula said last month that the new system would use the ultra-high frequency radio band in order to comply with orders from the Federal Communications Commission that emergency transmissions must be squeezed into a narrower slot on the radio spectrum.
The “narrow-banding” rules are supposed to take effect Jan. 1, 2013. But the new towers also would be desirable to do away with many of the radio “dead spots” in the county’s topography, Cecula said.
Some of the money could come from federal and state Homeland Security grants to the county. The Legislature voted Tuesday to accept two such grants totaling more than $1.8 million. Communication enhancements are among the permitted uses for the money.
Meanwhile, the Legislature ratified the county Water District’s decision to spend $950,000 on upgrades to two of the five giant basins at the county’s Wheatfield water filtration plant.
Water District Administrative Director Herbert A. Downs said each basin holds 285,000 gallons and is used to mix raw water from the Niagara River with chemicals to make it drinkable.
Three of the five basins were overhauled in 2006, Downs said. All five originally were installed in 1993 and should last another 15 years with the current improvements, he said.
The Legislature also awarded contracts to power-wash 83 bridges and repave the traffic lanes on 14 others next year.
Acme Powerwashing of Holley won the $81,604 cleaning contract, while Yarussi Construction of Niagara Falls was hired for the $180,699 paving project. Yarussi also won a $224,667 contract to lubricate and replace bridge bearings around the county.
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