The newly built MARCS radio tower still has no power and Trumbull County commissioners said they have been given no indication when it will be online.
The Multi-Agency Radio Communication System tower built along the east side of Route 7 south of the Brookfield school campus is a joint project of the state and county to try to eliminate radio dead spots in Masury and elsewhere on the eastern side of the county. Brookfield Fire Department and Ohio Highway Patrol use MARCS radios as their primary communication system while Brookfield Police Department still is using an UHF/VHF system. The police department has radios that are able to use MARCS but Chief Aaron Kasiewicz said he is waiting for the tower to be online before he has his policemen switch over to MARCS.
Fire Chief David Masirovits said the activation of the new tower can’t come soon enough.
“We’ve had three instances in the last two weeks of 911 checking up on our guys and our guys have no radio reception,” Masirovits said Jan. 27. “They’re not answering back.”
The chief said he ran lights and siren to one location to check on his firefighters because the patrolling policemen were tied up and could not respond for him.
County commissioners on Feb. 12 approved an agreement for Ohio Edison to run electricity to the site and a neighboring iHeartRadio transmission antenna. The county will pay $24,549 for its part of the project. Commissioner Rick Hernandez said he had not heard when the work would commence or be complete.
Township Trustee Dan Suttles said the township trustees are part of the problem in the delay. Select Water Solutions is seeking to reopen an injection well built on a piece of property that abuts the county-owned property on which the MARCS tower sits, and offered to help pay for the work to extend electricity. Suttles asked the commissioners to aid his attempt to deter the reopening of the well and former Commissioners Niki Frenchko and Mauro Cantalamessa agreed, deciding to go with a more expensive proposal to run new electric poles on the north side of McMullen Drive from Route 7 to the site instead of using existing poles on the south side and accepting Select Water’s offer to contribute. Malloy abstained from the vote but seemed clearly against the motion.
Since then, two new commissioners have taken office, Hernandez and Tony Bernard.
