CONTRIBUTED PHOTO The emergency communication tower near Gilman lays on top of the Heartland Co-Op. First responders borrowed radios from RACOM to answer emergency calls.

The aged and failing Marshall County emergency communication system managed to hold up during Monday’s derecho, but there was some damage.

Near Gilman, the tower which supplies first responders with a communication system, fell from the nearly 100 mph winds.

Gilman Fire Chief Randy Mommer, said the tower covers the southeast corner of Marshall County, sending out alerts to fire departments, law enforcement and ambulances. Since the tower is down, the department has borrowed three radios from RACOM in Marshalltown.

“Reception is spotty at best, but it is better than the other system,” Mommer said.

Pages are coming through, but he said they are unable to hear what the emergency is.

“We know something is going on, but we don’t know what,” Mommer said.

Even though the tower is down, he said the system held up surprisingly well during the derecho. The Gilman Fire Department responded to five or six calls within the first two hours following the storm. Then, a lot of people started calling.

“A few people had to call me personally,” Mommer said. “We were so busy, but not through 911.”

Marshall County Communications Manager Rhonda Braudis said they are working to get the site fixed.

“We are working on making sure they have a connection through the county,” she said. “The problem is it is an older system. We are trying to get it fixed so residents are taken care of.”

Braudis was surprised the system held its own against the derecho.

Pricey fix

Prior to the derecho, Mommer said there were problems with the communication system near Gilman stretching back one or two years.

“On occasion we had to use cell phones to talk to the Comm Center,” Mommer said. “In the winter, we had two rollover accidents we had to use cell phones for en route because the system was down.”

Problems with the system have been made known to the Marshall County Board of Supervisors since December. State Center Fire Chief Brad Pfantz said the system was old and rapidly failing. Pfantz presented a $5 million upgrade, available through RACOM.

Supervisor Bill Patten said they were surprised, as the county had not previously purchased equipment for a 911 system. He said the county is responsible for making sure 911 is available to residents, but according to Iowa code, is not responsible to pay for it.

Patten said the county and the cities had shared the cost of 911 since 1968, when 911 arrived. The county paid for salaries and benefits, but 911 was self-supporting from surcharges. Patten said there was never anything in the county budget for such a type of expense.

“It was always taken care of,” he said. “When Brad Pfantz came to use with this $5.4 million project that we needed to pay for . . . that was a shock to us. We had never paid for equipment.”

What particularly bothered Patten was it was the first time he was made aware of the situation.

“I briefly thought in October that something might happen, but we were never told radios were going bad,” he said.

At first, Patten and the other supervisors thought there might be enough in the county budget to begin the 12- to 18-month long process of replacing the system. However, money is tied up in Marshall County Courthouse repairs. The insurance company is paying for $30 million of damages to the courthouse, but the rest of the money is coming from the county.

“If we get a good deal down the road and we can start the contract with RACOM, we will do it in a heartbeat,” Patten said. “We are not against doing this thing even though we have never done it before. We think it is important to do, but we have no money right now.”

Patten acts carefully with the county money and likes to have a plan.

“It is a good, logical business thing to do,” he said. “Sometimes the government is not very logical and do a poor job with spending money.”

Holding up for now

If the 911 system in Marshall County gets hit with severe weather again, there is a possibility it might not hold. Brad Pfantz said they were told by a RACOM employee that the system is one lightning strike away from going down.

Braudis said the odds are not high the communications system will sustain another severe weather hit.

“It’s is holding up for the moment, but there are immediate problems,” she said. “One site is completely down, another site has structural damage.”

Braudis has faith the entities involved will fix the system and does not believe there will be a delay. According to Patten, the plan is to sign a contract with RACOM on July 1, 2021 to begin the 12- to 18-month building process.

“If for some reason we are able to save that money before then, if things fall in line, we are willing to do it,” Patten said.

Contact Lana Bradstream at lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.