More Confusion On County’s Emergency Radio Contract

An addition to the agenda to the Washington County Commissioners voting meeting shortly after the scheduled agenda meeting has caused some confusion among the board. Commissioners voted 2-1 to cancel a maintenance contract with MRA Inc. That company is the vendor for the current emergency radio system in the county. According to Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman, the contract with MRA Inc was cancelled over cost and timeline regarding a move of an antenna from the Courthouse Square Building to the Crossroads Building to allow demolition of the Courthouse Square Building to begin. Cost was also an issue according to Sherman. Though no figures were disclosed, Sherman said that the new vendor, Capital Communications, can perform the work more quickly and at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper than MRA Inc. Sherman says that Capital Communications is already under contract with the county to work on the new emergency radio system installation. Sherman went on to say that Capitol Communications is fully capable of performing the work and maintenance of equipment that MRA Inc was contracted to perform. Commissioner Larry Maggi voted against the measure, stating that this contract was cancelled last August without proper vetting, only to be reinstated in October. He says that he has not seen any figures that Sherman reports and wonders why the contract was not put out for bid.