The Worcester County Commissioners have delayed a decision to buy radio system hardware until they can obtain more information.
File photo
By Charlene Sharpe, Associate Editor
The Worcester County Commissioners have delayed a decision to buy radio system hardware until they get more information on the nearly $2 million proposal.
The commissioners voted unanimously on Feb. 20 to table consideration of staff recommendations to buy new radio system hardware from L3Harris.
“I have a lot of questions…,” Commissioner Caryn Abbott said. “I think we’ve spent an enormous amount of money. They may have been lowest bidder in 2015 but I think we overspent any savings that we have.”
James Hamilton, the county’s deputy director of emergency services, told the commissioners the department was seeking permission to move forward with a contract with L3Harris regarding a refresh of IT hardware components. He said the generally acceptable lifecycle of IT hardware such as servers, routers and switches was three to five years. The county’s equipment is now six years old. He said the timing of the project had been closely coordinated with the Town of Ocean City so because the town’s radio system and the county’s worked together.
“We’ve coordinated this project to remain in line with our tempo the town’s tempo as well as each budget cycle,” he said.
He said there had been $2 million budgeted for the work and it was expected to cost $1,787,584.
Abbott said she had questions about the proposal, as well as the next one Hamilton was scheduled to present regarding a new transmitter. She said she wanted to table discussion until the county got input from state radio officials. Commissioner Eric Fiori agreed it was an intricate issue and said he didn’t think a slight delay would hurt. Abbott also asked what would be done with the equipment being replaced.
Hamilton responded that the existing servers, network switches and routers would probably be wiped and sold on govdeals.com. Staff said any money generated from those sales would go back into the general fund.
Hamilton indicated a brief delay in the approval process would not impact the project schedule.