03/05/2026
The Dream of having a County Wide Radio System is close to Completion.
The dream began long ago, when few emergency responders including, Fire, Police & Emergency Management within our communities could communicate amongst each other due to coverage area signal strength. So, when first responders were in a low lying areas or inside structures, the likelihood of having any radio signal was near absent, leaving them venerable.
Since March of 2022, the Board of County Commissioners of Payne County have been discussing and working toward implementing a county wide radio system. The process to implement this system began with much difficulty due to a former elected official not following proper procedures. This was done by communicating and setting expectations with other stake holders without any knowledge or discussion with the Board of County Commissioners. Through this difficult time, there were many, many discussions and meetings to resolve the expectations that were set without board approval. As the process progressed, the BOCC voted to hire a consultant rather than just take the advise of the vendor potentially selling all the products for this system. The initial cost of the system was initially estimated to cost approximately $11 million.
Following the County Purchasing Act bidding procedures, a Bid packet prepared by TUSA, the consultant Payne County hired, was sent out to various vendors with the requirements of the system, including subscriber counts and coverage areas. Ultimately, Motorola was selected to be the provider for this system and further negotiations progressed with the local steak holders on how many subscriber units (Radio’s) were necessary. The initial system, while less expensive, did not provide the coverage area desired. It would not have provided coverage inside the new school facilities for first responders and other such facilities and that was not acceptable. As the design progressed, it was determined that the county would need additional tower sites for repeater equipment and create redundancy. The final design positioned tower sites in Glencoe, Yale, Cushing, Perkins and Stillwater, and this provides nearly county wide coverage.
In order for this system to be viable, agreements had to be created with the other stake holders and community partners identifying what the terms are, including cost sharing for system upkeep. All of the communities have submitted agreements that should be presented to the BOCC on March 9th for approval.
This system went from being a dream, due to the cost, to a reality utilizing American Rescue Plan Act funds that Payne County applied for and was awarded. The County received approximately $15.9 Million from the funds made available by the federal government to assist in recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic and of those funds, $13. 5 million was designated for the county wide radio system.
As of March 3rd, the system is undergoing its final installations, connections and signal strength testing and is expected to be fully online and operational within the next 5 weeks.
I would like to say a special THANK YOU to all of those who worked diligently to see this project through to completion. Without partnerships, this project would NOT have went from a Dream to Reality.
Zachary Cavett
Payne County Commissioner District #1
