Copyright 2024 BY APPLE VALLEY NEWS NOW.Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Monique Ledesma
PASCO, Wash. – While you wait to receive your ballot for the general election, one thing you can look forward to is the Proposition 1 communications sales tax.
Apple Valley News Now’s Monique Ledesma reports on why this is on the ballot and how it all comes down to safety.
“This is absolutely necessary between fire and rescue services and law enforcement. They need communication to communicate, talk to the command center, and get critical information from the 911 command center to the people on the scene. ,” said Mike Harris, Franklin County Fire District 3 Fire Chief. Said.
Mike Miller, Franklin County Communication Citizens Association sales tax chairman, said he was determined to join the proposal to help first responders continue to provide the same high level of safety for the county.
“I wanted to make sure that the people of the county had a good first response throughout the county. We need to solve it. So the easy way to do it was through sales tax instead of property tax,” Miller said.
The proposal would increase the sales tax in Franklin County only by 0.2% in order to upgrade Franklin County’s emergency communications for three years. After that, it drops to .1%.
Franklin County Fire District 3 Fire Chief Mike Harris said the current VHF radio system is outdated.
“We rely on the system we currently have in place, which is an aging system and radio engineers have told us it is aging. There are no parts and we are What we’re looking at is that it could fail at any time,” Harris said. “If you’re at the scene of a major emergency and it fails, you lose all communications.”
They’re not trying to create a new wheel based on this proposition. Harris said they have been looking at how other counties can upgrade their wireless systems.
“We have the budget to install a wireless system, but the cost is far beyond our budget, and the cost is far beyond our budget, covering most counties in Washington and northern states like Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The same goes for western counties. They use sales taxes to fund communication systems for first responders, just like in Prop. 1. So what we’re doing is. It’s nothing new. We’re just following the trend of what other counties have to do to maintain their skills,” Harris said.
Harris said it’s not just about upgrading communications radios.
“When you call 911 and tell dispatchers that the situation has changed in a car accident or emergency medical emergency, it’s important that they let you know that the situation has changed while you’re leaving.” If we can’t hear what they’re saying to us, we’re basically blind or arriving without the information we had when we were deployed. These are important elements for legal, fire and emergency medical services as well,” Harris said.
These are some of the things that will be upgraded through Mr. Miller’s proposal.
“Having all the towers, radios, cell towers, charging equipment inside, let alone putting it in a communications center would help Franklin County as well,” Miller said.
One of his concerns about this aging radio system is that when they’re out in the field and no one can hear them or know they can’t hear them, dispatchers may assume everything is okay. In other words, the wireless system may ignore the wireless system. You may miss important information. And in a situation where every second matters, it can take hours for either side to learn that the wireless system is down. Harris said first responders need their radio systems to be operational 100% of the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure the safety of the entire area.
Copyright 2024 BY APPLE VALLEY NEWS NOW.Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
