City Approves Funds for Police-Fire Radio

Heeding the advice of Police Chief Daryl Wicker, the City Council has approved a revised agreement for the city to join in a proposed countywide emergency communications system.

City Manager Darrell Essex estimated that the new arrangement will cost the city about $100,000 more than the one originally approved by the City Council last May.

The higher price is a result of the county government paying less of the total for the project, citing its cash crunch in the wake of the December 1994 bankruptcy filing.

The $80-million communications system would be an 800-megahertz, high-tech network linking all police and emergency units in the county. It would be in operation by 1999.

Wicker told the council that the original plan was for the county and cities to form a joint powers authority to operate the system. That proposal has now been dropped, Wicker said, because of the expense of “creating another level of government.”

Wicker said the new agreement between the county and cities will cost Cypress about $1.2 million. He said the city has been saving for many years for the project and has about $1 million put away toward its share.

The old agreement approved last year would have cost the city about $1.1 million.

In a recent memo to the council, Essex said there is an urgent need for a new communications system.

“The current radio system in use by Orange County police agencies has been in use since 1972, is deteriorating and was originally projected to be in place for [only] a period of 20 years,” Essex wrote.