Cooperation between Westmoreland and Armstrong counties will help reduce some of the cost of Armstrong switching to a high-band emergency communications system.
That was one topic discussed Wednesday at the Strongland Chamber of Commerce's Commissioners' Breakfast at Willowbrook Country Club.
Armstrong Commissioner Richard Fink discussed switching emergency communications from low band to high band to comply with a 2013 federal deadline. That means investing in new equipment, such as high-band radios for volunteer fire companies, and infrastructure in the form of radio towers and transmitters.
"Our estimate is for Armstrong County to do that, we're looking at $18 million, and I can tell you, we don't have $18 million," Fink said. "Looking into the future, it's not going to be an easy project. Today, it's $18 million. We don't know what it is going to be in two years."
Armstrong Chairman Patricia Kirkpatrick and Indiana County officials recently went to the nation's capital to push for help from federal officials on the communications upgrade.
That effort came after the two counties learned their grant application for a joint communications project under the federal stimulus bill was turned down by the state, which administers the funds.
Armstrong Commissioner Jim Scahill said Westmoreland County is helping to lower the cost by offering its switching equipment for Armstrong's use.
"We want to publicly thank you for that, Westmoreland County," Scahill said.
"We're happy that Armstrong County is going to be able to use it and it will help us with the maintenance of our system," Westmoreland Commissioner Tom Ceraso said.
Ceraso said there is capacity on the Westmoreland switch for "more towers and transmitters than we will ever have."
"The value is probably $1 million if we had to build our own switch," Scahill said.
Although Westmoreland will continue to pay the bulk of maintenance costs, Ceraso said Armstrong will share in that cost. But it will be cheaper than maintaining its own system and offer a bigger benefit, he said.
"There is going to be a seamless radio system at this end of the county, that crosses county lines," Balya said.
