DeKalb County Sheriff's Office asking County Board for additional $365K for digital radios

SYCAMORE – The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office is asking the DeKalb County Board for an additional $365,000 for its new digital radio system, a 9% increase over the $4 million already alloted for the project.

The board originally authorized $4 million for the switch in August 2017. A resolution will be put before the full County Board at its meeting Wednesday night.

About $300,000 of the additional $365,000 would come from the Emergency Telephone Safety Board, which oversees the county’s 911 system, said Dianne Leifheit, R-District 8, chairwoman of the County Board Law and Justice Committee.

The rest is coming from the funds from special waste fees at the landfill, she said.

Board Chairman Mark Pietrowski, D-District 3, said the County Board agreed in 2017 to let the special waste from the landfill help pay of the radios.

The extra money was needed and really isn’t extra, Pietrowski said.

“It’s not really an increase, because the cost was an estimate,” he said. “The cost came in above the estimate. It’s something none of us likes. Estimates are estimates.”

Pietrowski said the County Board agreed to the the project in 2017, but the project being completed in 2019 increased costs.

“A lot can happen in terms of the cost of steel and the cost of concrete,” he said.

Pietrowski said the sheriff’s office was trying to get different land to place the towers.

DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said the switch to the new system is necessary for the future safety of the county.

“This is really, truly a public safety issue for the entire county,” Scott said. “It will be available for every law agency in DeKalb County for decades.”

Scott said that the residents who make the calls to get service – fire, police or paramedics – that they get the service they need.

“We need a reliable system to make sure that happens,” he said. “It’s the goal of the system and we’ll make sure we get to it.”

He said moving from analog to digital is a long-term project that needed to happen.

“Our radio system is from the 1980s,” Scott said. “Our system was breaking down, so the county went forward with this project a year and a half or two years ago.”

Leifheit said the very southern and very northern parts of DeKalb County were the real problem areas.

“The reason why we were so behind it is there were many places in the county where a police officer could not radio back,” she said.

That makes it dangerous for police and fire, in case they need backup for emergencies.

“It’s like if your cellphone doesn’t work in certain places,” Leifheit said. “Our sheriff’s department was in that same situation. This radio system takes care of that.”

Scott said he expects the resolution to pass Wednesday.

“I think the vote will be fine,” Scott said. “We’ve had many discussions and the ETS board has been on it.”

The County Board will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at 200 N. Main St., Sycamore.