York County signs off on $1.2M communications contract

York County is working to purchase more communications equipment for both the county and for municipalities.

The commissioners voted Wednesday to approve purchasing radios from L3Harris Technologies for $1.2 million.

The motion replaces a contract approved in March that would have paid L3Harris $656,544 for new radios that would be in use at York County Prison. This new contract, as explained by Chief Clerk Greg Monskie, is designed to take advantage of bulk purchasing.

"We got better pricing by including it with the larger purchase," Monskie said.

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According to Monskie, radios currently in use across the municipalities and the 911 center are nearing the end of their support cycle. Each organization involved will pay into the new contract.

"We're purchasing some, and for the prison those aren't replacements; they're a strict upgrade," Monskie said.

911 project manager Scott Keener said in March the equipment would use the county's preexisting infrastructure network.

Keener said the upgrades would grant the county prison enhancements, such as the ability to see who exactly is calling rather than just the alias of the user.

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"You know what police officer you're talking to, or if they're in their car, or if it's a firefighter where they're from, just little things like that," he said.

Monskie said Wednesday the contract offers a benefit to both the county and participating municipalities because of the bulk pricing.

"They had put it through to buy it on their own, but we saved a little bit of money by reversing that," Monskie said of York County Prison.

The county also approved a limited public access easement between the owners of a property in Heidelberg Township and the York County Rail Trail Authority for use of part of the property as a publicly accessible trail.

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According to Rail Trail Authority solicitor Scott Beaverson, the easement is related to the development of the Hanover Trolley Trail. The county has an agreement with Met-Ed to use the former trolley trail now owned by the utility company; in addition, the Rail Trail Authority had purchased a railroad trail. The two run parallel in the Heidelberg Township area.

"The purpose of this easement is to connect the existing trail on the Met-Ed corridor with the railroad that the authority purchased," Beaverson said.

— Reach Matt Enright via email at menright@yorkdispatch.com or via Twitter at @Matthew_Enright.