Washington County approves $16.97 million Motorola public‑safety radio system, adds maintenance financing

The Washington County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a cooperative procurement with Motorola Solutions Inc. to replace and upgrade the county’s public‑safety radio system. The contract for equipment and system upgrade is $16,965,949; separate four‑year maintenance pricing of $2,500,000 was included and officials said yearly maintenance will be built into the FY25‑26 budget.

County staff and Motorola representatives told supervisors the procurement followed a multi‑year process that began with a Federal Engineering study. Staff said the project started with an initial equipment estimate of $26.3 million, then was reduced by roughly $6.8 million through contract negotiations, regional partnerships and technical adjustments. Mr. Berry, a county staff member, recommended moving forward with the cooperative procurement, saying collaboration with neighboring localities and careful engineering drove the savings.

Motorola and its service partner MCA presented the proposed system at the meeting, describing a two‑cell simulcast digital design, UHF channel licensing, trunking for greater capacity, and vehicle repeaters to extend portable‑radio coverage. "We spent over 200 design iterations to arrive at the right combination for Washington," Randy Edwards of MCA said during the presentation.

Supervisors asked detailed questions about coverage in known problem areas such as Mendota, cybersecurity and site resilience. Motorola said the plan uses a dedicated microwave network to connect sites (rather than relying on commercial cellular networks) and that remote maintenance access would be limited and secured via VPN and firewalls; Motorola representatives offered to coordinate technical security reviews with county IT. On backup power and outages, Motorola said sites would have UPS battery holdover and on‑site generators, and that generators and environmental alarms would be monitored under the maintenance plan.

The motion to award the cooperative procurement and authorize Mr. Berry to sign the contract upon county‑attorney approval also authorized financing the purchase through the Virginia Resources Authority; the vote was 7‑0.

Next steps: county staff will finalize contract documents with Motorola, pursue the VRA financing approved by the board, and incorporate the maintenance costs into the county budget beginning fiscal year 2025‑26. Board members and staff said additional site work and potential partnerships (including coordination with neighboring Smith County and other localities) may follow to close localized coverage gaps.