Motorola is currently working on engineering requirements and equipment needs associated with the restoration of the site.
Additional Radio System Redundancy
There will continue to be vulnerabilities in the radio system that have existed for decades.
A fully redundant system would require another appropriately licensed tower site in a strategically better location, along with the installation of the necessary radio equipment and infrastructure. Such an undertaking would cost millions of dollars.
Another alternative for achieving a more fully redundant radio system would be to increase the height of the existing Delta Tower and equip the site with the same radio equipment and capabilities currently located at the Sampson Tower. This approach could potentially provide greater geographic coverage and allow the Delta site to serve as a true secondary radio site if the Sampson Tower were to become unavailable. The feasibility of this option would need to be evaluated by Motorola and other qualified engineering personnel to determine whether the Delta Tower structure, location, height, and surrounding infrastructure could support the additional equipment and provide adequate coverage to areas currently served by Sampson. This would also cost a significant amount of money.
VIII. 911 Center Redundancy
A separate but equally important issue is the lack of a fully redundant 911 dispatch center.
The primary controls for the county's radio system are located within the current 911 center. If a catastrophic event were to render the current building unusable, the county could potentially lose the ability to receive 911 calls as well as the ability to dispatch emergency calls through the radio system.
Long term, the county should evaluate options for establishing a fully functional, geographically separate backup 911 dispatch center.
Developing this capability would be a significant undertaking and is estimated to cost several million dollars. To my knowledge, there are few, if any, other counties in Indiana that currently maintain a fully functional backup center with complete operational redundancy.