Over the past two weeks, all three of the radio consolettes used by the Barton County Communications Office have failed, jeopardizing 911’s ability to respond to first responders and the public. So, the County Commission Wednesday morning OKed the purchase of one used consolette and two new ones for the department.

In April 2018, Barton County Communications purchased three used Motorola XTL5000 radio consolettes, said 911 Director Dena Popp. These allow for ease in channel use, paging, recordings and officer emergency identification, as well assist in public Kansas Open Records Act requests. 

Approved was the purchase of two new APX 800Mhz Consolettes from Motorola at a cost of $15,648.40 and one used APX 800Mhz Consolette at a cost of $3,315.00 from Mobile Radio of Great Bend for a total cost of $18,963.40. This is an allowable use of 911 tax funds, Popp said.

“These radios integrate into the consoles that we use for primary channels,” she said. “The consolettes are steerable, meaning that we can change the channel from the console and not have to walk back to the radio.”

In addition, it allows for paging, which can’t be done on a simple mobile radio. It also displays an officer’s identifier number if their emergency button has been pressed.

“One of the biggest downfalls of (not having them) is it doesn’t allow me to record. The audio goes into the consolette but it doesn’t come back out to hit the recorder,” she said. They have a temporary fix in place, but they need the recorder function.

Motorola was able to find one used one that will suffice, but this is a popular model and there aren’t many used ones on the market. This means two had to be new.

“It’s super important that we keep 911 up and going,” said commission Chairman Shawn Hutchinson, District 3.