BOARDMAN — County and local officials have a better idea of what it will cost to switch emergency communications to a statewide system after a meeting this week.

Emergency responders from Austintown, Boardman and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, who comprise the ABM Council of Governments, met Tuesday with representatives of Motorola.

Mahoning County has a software upgrade agreement with Motorola to maintain the existing network, hardware and software that keep emergency communications systems operating for police, fire and road crews.

The communities are mulling a move from their independent first-response communication system to the Multi-Agency Radio Communication System, commonly known as MARCS.

“We’re fact finding now, looking at the cost effectiveness of switching to that system,” said sheriff’s office Chief Deputy William Cappabianca. “We got a lot of questions answered and now we also know other questions to ask to determine if it is a wise move.”

MARCS is a state-sponsored system that allows emergency responders from different agencies to communicate directly through their radios, instead of funneling communications through multiple dispatch centers, which costs time in an emergency.

MARCS would allow local law enforcement, for example, to tie into the MARCS system anywhere in Ohio, easing communications with local and regional agencies in the case of prisoner transfer to and from out-of-county facilities.

After a meeting in October, council officials were unsure about the financial feasibility of making that change.

Boardman police Chief Todd Werth said the fee to join MARCS is $1.3 million to $1.4 million, but it’s not the only cost. While the state would take over the maintenance of the towers, the county has to have the proper system in place to support MARCS.

Representatives from Motorola said Mahoning County operates on Motorola’s Essential-Plus plan. To upgrade to support the MARCS system, the county would have to purchase an Advanced Plus plan.

At last month’s meeting, ABM officials said Motorola had given them a quote for the upgrade that included Youngstown and Canfield, but those two communities now have independent systems and are not part of the council.

Stev Sinn, dispatch director for Austintown, said if the council maintains its own system, the cost for remaining under the existing agreement with Motorola for 2026, covering all infrastructure and radio consoles, would be $324,835 per year.

That cost is passed along to the member communities in monthly fees per radio in use. The 2026 cost to Austintown, Boardman, and Mahoning County would be $19.12 per radio. That cost would go up to $19.88 in 2027 and $20.68 in 2028.

The cost now is $18.20 per rado per month.

If the council transitions to an advanced agreement and makes the move to MARCS, the cost will only have to cover consoles in dispatch centers, because the state would assume maintenance of the towers. The annual cost for the life of the three-year contract would then be $135,000 per year and the cost per radio per month would drop to $5.

Sinn said some of the costs and how they will be managed, should the council switch to MARCS, are still being discussed.

For example, he said Mahoning County’s total investment in the project remains unclear because the county is still waiting on vendors’ quotes for improvements to be made at tower sites.

Mahoning County maintains four towers, but one does not require improvement because it is co-owned with MARCS. That is the former WNEO tower at the Alliance border in the southwest corner of Mahoning County.

MARCS also has a dispatch console site at Lincoln Knolls to support radio traffic for Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Another matter under discussion is whether the county will maintain the dispatch console inside the Mahoning County jail.

Without that console, the annual cost for communications through MARCS would be only $98,000 per year, Sinn said.

But Cappabianca said that depends entirely upon whether the county can find a way to ensure any emergency communications signals from within the jail would be received and responded to within the same time, so as not to endanger county employees.

“Right now, the jail is still in the quote, but we’re looking for alternatives, for a way to shut that console down. We need a mechanism to let responders here know if a deputy hits a panic button,” he said. “If we can do that, as long as it does not delay our response to deputies inside the jail, then we will shut down that console.”

Sinn said the council also is still determining how to fund the annual cost, which has been passed on to the local communities in addition to their radio fees.

He said if they continue to use that model, the total cost including radio fees would be $12-13 per month.

Cappabianca said the council’s directors have asked for a budget to be presented at the Dec. 10 in Boardman. If they find the budget agreeable, they will present it to their respective governing bodies, trustees in Austintown and Boardman and Mahoning County commissioners for consideration.

Cappabianca said that includes an inventory of radio equipment.

“Now our homework switches to identifying the current inventory of radios to see if they will all make the transition over, or if there will also be a cost for purchasing new radios,” he said.