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Putnam 'MARCS' a change

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By LISA NICELY

nicely@crescent-news.com

GLANDORF -- It's about better communication and saving money.

State and Putnam County officials gathered Sunday at the county's Office of Public Safety in Glandorf to kick off the Ohio Multi-Agency Radio Communication System (MARCS). The allows law enforcement, first responders, emergency personnel and others to communicate with each other to better serve the community. The voice and data network provides statewide interoperability to subscribers.

"Our vision is that if a trooper is out to the road at 3 o'clock in the morning and called for help from anyone, someone could hear them and help," said Darryl Anderson, director of the Ohio MARCS, who was at the meeting. "The beauty of it is that it doesn't have to be a state trooper, it can be any of us.

"We started working with Putnam County in November 2004," he noted. "We started talking to county officials on how to build a system for northwest Ohio that would meet northwest Ohio needs."

Putnam County is the first county in the state to fully implement the MARCS technology with acquired grant funds.

The county received a federal Public Safety Interoperable Communications grant to implement the communications upgrade. Thirteen other counties in the state received funds for the system.

"This really is a big day," said Steve Odenweller, coordinator of the Putnam County Office of Public Safety. "We wanted to make the communication systems for Putnam County as thorough as we could. We will still grow. There will be changes and improvements on how we handle the communications in the county. With this project we are leaders in helping northwest Ohio."

Odenweller thanked the communications committee for its hard work in making the project a reality. He especially thanked W.D. Miller, who was instrumental in applying for the grant funds.

The cost of a MARCS portable/mobile radio is $240 per unit a year with a control station costing $480 a unit a year. A mobile data unit costs $4,200 a unit per year and a computed-aided dispatch is $21,000 per unit a year.

Anderson said the system has two main goals -- to save taxpayers money by having a partnership of agencies with the state and to put tools in the hands of law and emergency personnel.

MARCS started in September 1994 with a vision of five state agencies being connected at an approximate cost of $211 million.

"Instead of five we have 600-plus now," Anderson said. "We have township, municipal, county, state, federal and people in the private sector connected. We have 33,000 (individuals) on the system instead of 8,000. We are working with six additional states. I know a lot of folks if you go into Indiana on a call you might as well have dropped off the face of the earth. Within the next two or three months we will be operational so if you go to Indiana you will be able to talk directly to them."

Putnam County is part of the northwest Ohio regional communication plan in which Putnam, Henry, Van Wert, Allen, Hancock, Auglaize, Mercer and Hardin counties will have the MARCS technology to better serve the area.

The counties have received $11.5 million in federal funds and $2.5 million in state funds to make this possible.

The other seven counties should have MARCS implemented by the end of the year, Anderson said. Hancock may be the next to implement the program, he added.

Anderson said the federal government is examining the northwest Ohio regional communication plan in a positive aspect.

To help ensure a clear coverage area, towers are being constructed or technology is being installed at existing towers to ensure entire counties are covered. A tower near Continental has already been equipped with MARCS technology.

"We are working with commissioners in Van Wert to build a new tower to greatly improve coverage in southwestern Putnam County," said Anderson. "We're doing that all over northwest Ohio -- all will federal money. If you need to respond to an emergency somewhere else in the state, or someone else in the state needs to respond to another flood in Ottawa, they can be talked to with this system."

Hugh Quill, director of the Ohio Administrative Services, said the system is important and utilizing grant funds for it really saved taxpayers money.

"We are stronger together at the end of the day," he said. "When we leverage our investments, people's lives are safe and we become more effective. This is very important work I know you've been engaged in. We have a greater responsibility and duty to do our best when people need us the most. That is the high level view I have of MARCS. It allows us to communicate, to talk to each other. When you talk together you can coordinate, buy smarter."

Quill said that the state is aware that MARCS is an investment and it will help the community. He said in the budget bill there will be a task force formed to tackle some of the fundamental issues of the system that may be burdensome to local communities. MARCS subscribers in the state are responsible for the maintenance of equipment and its purchase.

"We know that we are stronger together," he said. "We are going to try every day to get there. We are appreciative of what you do for your communities and the state of Ohio."

John Love, Putnam County commissioner and communications committee member, said MARCS will be an valuable tool for the county.

"The concept is one where we have all public safety forces being able to talk on the same channel," he said. "Anytime you have an exercise or incident, the first thing we found is that we could not talk to each other."

The cost of the MARCS radio system was $1.8 million for Putnam County alone. That included 330 base, mobile and portable radio units. Love said with the support of the communications committee, emergency personnel and others the county was able to secure grant funds for the system.

"The idea of being on the statewide MARCS has been great for us," Love said. "Putnam County is going to benefit and is fortunate to be part of this system."

Sheriff James Beutler echoed Love's statements and said that the grant money truly helped make the system a reality for the county.

Beutler said his office was experiencing an aging radio system and had talked to other sheriffs in the region about what could be done to resolve the issue.

"We were all having the same issues," he said. "Quite honestly, MARCS wasn't part of the discussion. It was a state operation and who could afford $5,000 radios? We thought about developing our own radios system. We started meeting together with the rest of the agencies. Then W.D. (Miller) and others got grants that made MARCS available.

"It's because of them we can provide better safety to our officers, our EMTs and others out there. We're setting the example of what collaborative efforts between many people can accomplish. We hope things continue. We want to thank everyone for all the hard work you have done."