Franklin leaders divided over tax to replace failing 911 system. Deadline looms

Would the difference between one extra penny and two cents on a $10 purchase matter to you when it comes to rebuilding our 911 infrastructure on the verge of collapse ?

Franklin County leaders aren’t sure, but they have just two weeks left to decide what to ask for on the November ballot.

The cost of replacing aging 911 tower equipment and getting everyone onto a newer, more reliable system is a big lift across the Tri-Cities, but for rural Franklin County residents it could be a matter of life and death.

That’s because vast stretches of rural areas of the county are still on an obsolete microwave and VHF system that they can’t even find replacement parts for.

Just last week handheld radios failed twice during emergency operations, said Chief Steve Cooper with Franklin County Fire District 4.

His district covers Basin City and the northwest corner of the county.

Cooper told Franklin County commissioners last week that they’re welcome to come on a ride-along with his department to see just how bad communication already is out in the county, even without a major failure.

Earlier this year law enforcement and fire chiefs from across the Tri-Cities got together to renew a push for a systemwide replacement, that would see the cost of up to $30 million total across two projects, split between Benton and Franklin counties and Pasco, Richland and Kennewick.

That total will shift as the agencies know the number of radios needed to be replaced and if they qualify for any Washington state and federal grants.

Already grant funding has eliminated a significant chunk of the costs for the first portion of the project, knocking millions off the project price tag.

The first $4.5 million of the project, which has already been approved and paid for through various other means such as remaining American Rescue Plan funds, will replace the VHF and microwave drums on towers.

The second portion will require replacing every radio in use on the older systems, as well as all of the electronics that route the signals from the tower to SECOMM’s dispatch center .

The request was originally planned for 2020, but the pandemic pushed the initiative to the side, and the towers have continued to age.

The problem is Franklin County is facing a budget crunch and it can’t pay for the rest of the necessary upgrades unless it asks voters to pass a 911 communications sales tax.

Commissioners appear undecided on whether to tax at the two cents recommended by the Tri-Cities first responder leadership or go with a lower amount.

How did the Tri-Cities’ 911 emergency system get to a crisis point? COVID played a role

What could be on the ballot?

Commissioner Clint Didier doesn’t think they can sell Franklin County tax payers on the extra one-tenth of a cent, but law enforcement leaders have pushed back telling him they’ve seen wide support.

He’s still advocating for a 0.01 sales tax ask on the November ballot, with only two weeks left for the county to make a decision.

When you buy something in Tri-Cities, what are your sales taxes paying for?

“I think all three commissioners agree that it should be on the ballot, but is it going to be one-tenth or two-tenths?” Didier said at the Wednesday meeting. “As a commissioner, I want this to pass.”

Emergency response officials have been clear that the need they’re facing demands the two-tenths.

The upgrades would see every agency move onto an 800 mhz system. Right now most fire agencies are on old UHF systems and the police agencies, with the exception of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, are on the 800 mhz frequency.

Benton County is equipped with 800 mhz towers, thanks to federal funding related to the Hanford site, but Franklin largely relies on old equipment that hasn’t been upgraded in decades.

Connell Fire Chief Ken Woffendon said there are ongoing considerations that necessitate levying the larger amount. He noted that while there is a large, upfront one-time cost to upgrade the towers and radios, there will be annual ongoing costs as well.

“I think we’re arguing over a tenth of a percent, it would help to explain where some of that money would go ... The radio user fees are going to kill us, we’re talking anywhere from $20 to $40 per radio per month,” Woffendon said.

The license fees would apply to every radio in use, and help cover the spectrum of the air waves they’re using. He’s concerned those costs could be dumped onto the rural towns that can’t afford to cover them.

“That’s something we’ve never experienced before,” Woffendon continued. “One way or the other the voters are going to have to pay for this, and it’s spread across a broader area if it’s two-tenths of a cent, rather than trying to levy taxes in a small community.”

While their deadline to get an item on the ballot is fast approaching, the commissioners were able to give staff direction to move forward.

They seem committed to a November ballot item, but are working to see if they can ask voters to indicate their preference.

They’re leaning toward a ballot item that would have two choices — Do you support the two-tenths of a cent sales tax? If not, do you support a one-tenth of a cent levy?

It’s unclear whether they can structure this kind of a ballot decision for a sales tax levy and what would be required for the voters guide and ballot language. They should have more information by Wednesday, July 24.

“ I think the consensus is, we’re all in favor of it being on the ballot, we just have to get the correct avenue for it,” Chairman Rocky Mullen said.

This potential sales tax is separate from the Public Safety Sales Tax and the E-911 tax , which helps pay for dispatch services. It can only be used to pay for the infrastructure and radios.

Mullen and Didier also reaffirmed their desire to see the Ben Franklin Transit sales tax rate cut in order to offset the increase.

The BFT board voted to put off discussion of asking voters to cut their tax rate for at least two years after heated discussion over the matter earlier this year.

A November voter initiative to repeal the state’s carbon tax could cost the agency $70 million or more over the next decade. If the tax isn’t repealed, they stand to lose up to $200 million in state and federal funding if the board cuts the agency’s tax rate.

Obsolete systems

These 911 communication towers are a complex system. It starts with a microwave transmitter, the drums often seen on cell phone towers, which lead into a computer and transmitting equipment.

Phase one of the project is replacing those drums and the parts used to connect them to electronics that help reroute the signals. This is the portion that’s already being paid for.

Parts for the older VHF system haven’t been made in years. While Benton County is largely already upgraded, they still have more than a half dozen VHF systems across the county that fire departments use.

Many of the VHF setups still use monochrome monitors, the old black and green displays that haven’t been manufactured in decades.

The microwaves and VHF components are both failing on a regular basis, and while in the past they’ve been able to find replacements online, the market vanished during the pandemic. For a while they made due thanks to parts donated when Walla Walla County upgraded its own system.

Now those also have run out.

While Franklin County could do a total overhaul of their antiquated VHF system, the technology format itself would be obsolete before the end of the decade, and they’d be back at square one.

It would also cost nearly as much as just moving to the 800 MHz system.

The second, larger portion of the upgrade, will see all of the other electronics, transmitters and repeaters on Franklin County hilltops upgraded to be brought in line with the rest of the region.

That’s all of the equipment that lives in the small buildings you see next to the towers in places like the top of Badger Mountain.

Then most of the two-dozen agencies in the counties will need upgraded radio systems that work on the 800 MHz signal.

The most recent estimates have that portion costing $15 million to $18 million. Earlier initial estimates had the price tag at nearly $27 million just for that portion, but Richland Fire Chief Thomas Huntington previously told the Herald that was a worse-case estimate based on if the counties had no existing towers already in place.

It was also going off of estimates of total number of radios in their possession, rather than in-use. Some fire protection districts may have several hundred older radios lying around, but only a couple dozen they actually use.

Another major benefit of the 800 MHz system is that it’s digital and far more robust, allowing for greater numbers of channels and easier coordination. The old VHF system has limited channels and they’re typically used by only one agency at a time.

So in a major emergency, under the 800 MHz system, it is much easier to move all first responders working the call to a single channel where they can coordinate without having to worry about cross-traffic.

Another major benefit of this system, which is administrated by Motorola, is that Benton County’s contract has upgrades built in.

The agreement replaces software and hardware every two years, and that agreement will be in place system-wide once the upgrades are complete.

“W e wouldn’t ever be in this position again, we would always have the latest and greatest on the mountain tops,” Huntington said in March.

He said there really isn’t a “Plan B,” the current infrastructure isn’t just at the end of its life cycle, it’s obsolete.

Huntington said there is a real concern the equipment won’t even last long enough for the upgrades to be finished.

“Remaining status quo is not really an option,” Huntington said. “We’re chasing every funding option we can get our hands on. Big grants, small grants, potentially even loans.”

Franklin County Information Services Director Liz Cupples told commissioners that they need voters to make a decision because the county has no other funding options. They can chase grants once they have funding in place, she said.

“This emergency communication tax, it is needed. I see no way that Franklin County can pay for this upgrade without that tax,” Cupples said. “There is no source and funding to build that budget out, this (sales tax) will fund it and build that budget out.”

There are two commission meetings left before the Aug. 6 deadline to place the measure on the November presidential election ballot.

It’ll cost the county about $21,000 to do so, but that cost is always cheaper for presidential elections because the total cost is split among all parties.

The commissioners can also call a special meeting to make the decision.