2024 02 20 City Council Packet 1

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PUBLIC WORKS 
 
MEMORANDUM 
 
TO:  Deb Wallace, City Manager  
   
FROM:  Ben Burchfield, Public Works Director 
 
DATE:  February 7, 2024 
 
SUBJECT: Public Works 800 MHz Radio Conversion 
 
The Council recently approved migrating APD and AFD to  an 800 MHz radio system  at last 
month’s regularly scheduled meeting. Leadin g up to tha t, Chief Ain sworth had been 
coordinating with Public Works and Motorola Solutions on migrating Public Works as well, but 
we were still finalizing our quote and decided against trying  to include it at the last minute  
without an opportunity to have a discussion with Council. 
 
Public Works has already budgeted for modifying and ex panding its existing UHF radio system 
as part of this fiscal year. The  existing radio system ha d fell out of regular use years ago, and 
APW needs to get back to making it the primary method of commu nication for day -to-day 
operations. We’re opting for this because  relying on cell phones to relay information  while 
operating is not desirable and presents potential liability, in addition to the fact that if we had a 
similar situation like  the 2016 tornado, our ability to  e ffectively communicate  could be 
compromised altogether and negatively impact our ability to operate for days, weeks, or even 
longer.  
 
We investigated the pros and cons of staying on the UHF system vs. migrating to VHF, which as 
you are all aware is what APD and AFD are now migrating away from. We opted to keep UHF at 
that time  in an effort to keep costs down, as VHF  did not offer an y significant benefits at a 
higher cost other than allowing cross communication with APD  and AFD . We  considered the 
fact that A PD and AFD  were not satisfied with the performance  of VHF  at that time as well . 
Moving to 800 MHz  was actually discussed several years ago, but at that time, the conversion 
was cost prohibitive and was ultimately not pursued.  
 
Having now approved moving APD and AFD to the platform, APW is also requesting approval to 
scrap expanding and maintain ing the lone  UHF system and  instead move to the 800 MHz 
system. Reception and audio quality are better, as well as having the added benefit of improved 
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