Comanche County Commissioners designate ARPA funds for county radio upgrades

American Rescue Plan Act funding is allowing Comanche County emergency responders to do something they’ve wanted for years: get everyone on the same page.

That page actually is the same radio system. Tuesday’s decision by the Comanche County Board of Commissioners designated $1.747 million of county ARPA funding to buy 1,000 radios and associated equipment for the county’s rural emergency responders. Commissioners voted without comment to designate $1,747,302.80 to the county’s emergency management system for the purchase of mobile and portable 800 megahertz and VHF radios, and related equipment. Those radios and supportive equipment will go to first responders operating outside the Lawton city limits, which means volunteer fire departments, police departments and emergency management.

Emergency Management Director Clint Lankford said the news will be tremendous for the county’s smaller emergency responder agencies who don’t have the money to do something they desperately need: upgrade equipment. The City of Lawton was able to do it the same way Comanche County just did, voting in December 2021 to designate some of its ARPA funding to upgrade radios and equipment.

“The first responders of Comanche County greatly appreciate it,” Lankford said of an upgrade he predicted would take six months to accomplish. “It increases the safety of all first responders on the scene.”

Lankford said commissioner action ends at least two years of efforts to upgrade outdated radio equipment that dates back to the nation’s efforts to modernize emergency response communications in the days following 9/11. Given that Sept. 11, 2001, was more than 20 years ago, that means radios being used by some rural departments are at least 10 years past their intended life, Lankford said.

“They have more than exceeded their life cycle,” he said, adding the radios also haven’t kept pace with advancements in communications.

When Oklahoma designated 800 megahertz radios for emergency responders, the decision was limited to those along interstate corridors, a benefit to Lawton but not for others that don’t link to interstates.

Age has caused other problems for rural agencies. Not all the radios work, or work intermittently, and there isn’t a uniform connectivity. While emergency responders on the 800 megahertz system can hear each other, that isn’t true of the other radio systems that have their own frequencies.

Lankford said that is why he recommended Comanche County buy both 800 megahertz and VHF radios: the 800 megahertz radios will allow the rural responders to link to everyone else with the same system, while the VHF radios will keep them in contact with departments who still use VHF radios. That’s an important consideration at incidents such as grass fires, which typically involve multiple fire departments, including those from outside the county.

That also why so many radios are being purchased. Lankford said there are about 300 volunteer firefighters in Comanche County and at least 125 apparatus used by those agencies. There’s also police departments in other towns. All will be receiving the 800 megahertz and VHF radios, he said.

It’s an expenditure most rural departments can’t afford on their own. Lankford said there is a misconception the county sales tax covers the expenditures of rural fire departments, when those funds actually cover about one-third of operating costs. The rest must be found in other ways.

“That’s why so many have fundraisers,” he said of rural fire departments.

All the rural responders need equipment, he said, noting some agencies are using radios literally held together with duct tape.

“This is huge,” Lankford said, of the county’s decision. “They are all ecstatic.”