City approves additional money for police radio upgrade

OTHELLO — The Othello City Council on Monday voted unanimously to spend an extra $16,000 to upgrade the police department’s communications system, boosting the cost of the project to $170,000.

According to Othello Police Chief Phil Schenck, the department needs the additional appropriation to purchase “substantially better radios” than were originally proposed.

“We’ve been using some radios to see how it will work,” Schenck told council members. “They are better models, they are industry standard.”

Nothing else in the proposed project would change, Schenck said.

Last fall, the city council originally budgeted $154,000 to replace the police department’s aging radio system. The project involves replacing the communications consoles in the police station itself, the radios, antennas and related equipment for 15 police vehicles and 17 officers, as well as maintenance and support for the new equipment.

Othello’s finances are tight, and the city has little additional money for extra costs. However, both council members and city officials promised to find the money and pass a budget adjustment — likely later this year — to get the project fully funded.

Schenck said he would prefer replacing everything at once rather than incrementally.

“We want to get this project moving,” he said. “I still expect my dispatch center to crash any minute.”

Schenck said it would take about two months to replace the communications center, car and officer radios.

The council also voted unanimously to rezone 40.2 acres on Lee Road in the north part of Othello as industrial land. Currently, the two parcels are zoned open space reserved.

According to Anne Henning, Othello community development director, one of the 20.1-acre lots is owned by Alfred and Jodi Ochoa and hosts two large storage facilities, while the other 20.1-acre lot is owned by Avista and will be the future site of a power substation.

“This zoning change should have happened earlier,” Henning said. “They’re just getting things lined up for the future.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com