Testing has wrapped up on the $16 million upgrades to narrowband the Schuylkill County emergency communications system.
Scott Krater, communications coordinator, said Wednesday at a commissioners' work session that coverage testing was completed Tuesday. He said there will be a few more meetings with Motorola, as well as with county emergency services, to go over new features on the system.
"We hope by mid-July to have this wrapped up," Krater said.
Mandated by the Federal Communications Commission, narrowbanding radio frequencies allows a system to accommodate more radios while improving quality and creating additional options for emergency communications.
The $16,388,145 contract with Motorola Solutions Inc. is being funded though the $21 million bond issued by the commissioners in October 2012. Schuylkill County was granted a waiver to extend the deadline for the project to October 31.
Paul Buber, county finance director, said the county has spent $13,605,231.40 on the project as of Wednesday.
The state Department of Transportation has approved federal and state funding for at the Schuylkill Transportation System. The $433,100 in funding will be used to purchase six shared-ride replacement vehicles and two-way communications equipment.
The commissioners approved a payment to Pennsylvania Counties Risk Pool, an insurance pool operated by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. The payment is for $461,382 for Sunday through June 1, 2015. Martina Chwastiak, human resources director, said the premium has been reduced by $4,012 due to the low number of claims the county had last year. During that time, the county only had 14 claims totaling $6,564. In the year prior, county claims totaled $153,885.
There were seven bidders for 16 surplus county vehicles. The vehicles varied in model and year from 1991 to 2008. Denaples Auto Parts, Dunmore, and 21st Street Motors, Saint Clair, were the only companies to submit bids on multiple vehicles.
The county also received bids for back scanning client records for electronic storage and destruction of the physical records at the Children and Youth agency. Bidders were: Filebank, Oakland, New Jersey, $133,500; Quality Associates Inc., Fulton, Maryland, $105,000; File-X Document Imaging Services Inc., West Conshohocken, $72,750; IMR Limited, Camp Hill, $105,000; Reynolds Business Systems, Allentown, $120,000; and Layton Documents Systems Inc., Marietta, Georgia, $52,500.
The commissioners issued a proclamation Wednesday recognizing the Schuylkill River as Pennsylvania's 2014 River of the Year. The proclamation comes just before the 16th annual Schuylkill Sojourn this Saturday as paddlers jump in their kayaks for the seven-day, 112-mile trip on the river.
"We lost last year by 150 votes, so we made sure all of our friends across the state got out to vote this year," Kurt D. Zwikl, Schuylkill River Heritage Area executive director, said.
Nominated by Montgomery County, the Schuylkill River was previously selected as River of the Year in 1999. The river stretches 128 miles from its headwaters in Schuylkill County to the Delaware River in Philadelphia and runs through 42 miles in Montgomery County.
The commissioners retirement board meeting will be held June 11 immediately following the commissioners' public meeting. The monthly prison board will meet at 11 a.m. June 11.