County Commissioner Samuel Tran asked Chris Martin from Linn County to speak about the new radio system choices the county has and what’s associated with changing over to a new system. Martin has been with Linn County since 2009, starting as a sheriff’s deputy, he became IT director in 2015 and has managed the sheriff’s office radios since 2013 and the whole county’s radios since 2015.
He said that Linn is smaller than Bourbon County but has similar terrain to deal with when choosing a radio system. He pointed out that there is a big difference between frequencies and technologies and all digital modes have issues. Bourbon County is currently on a DMR system with two channels on one frequency.
Sheriff Bill Martin said that the current plan is to hire TUSA Consulting Services to do a study and make recommendations for a radio system to a collection of first responder leaders in Bourbon County. TUSA will then collect bids for equipment and services that meet their recommendations for Bourbon County.
One reason for the change over to a new system, in addition to fixing the issues with the current system is that the county must begin working towards encryption per new FBI regulations.
Stronghold Discussion
Stronghold Technologies representatives came to the meeting to discuss the scope of work from their recent assessment of the county’s technology.
Among other issues, they addressed the county’s firewall, the need for new VLANS, cleaning up the user accounts, and organizing the wire and fiber within the county.
The report says that the county’s firewall is a very good one but needs to be reconfigured for best use. The county’s internet system also needs segmentation and dedicated lanes for information transfer. Stronghold would like to install new VLANS, but not new servers at this time, as well as create a plan for replacing hardware as it becomes outdated.
Organizing the wire and fiber by tracing and labeling will reduce the time taken to troubleshoot when issues arise. The goal is to create documentation and a complete map of the Bourbon County network, laying the foundation for their infrastructure.
Another goal in their scope of work is to eliminate the congestion in communicating with the Sheriff’s department.
They also proposed checking the current phone system for correct configuration.