BOARDMAN — The police department will have to acquire new radios to ensure a smooth transition to a state-run communications network.

Last month, the Austintown-Boardman-Mahoning County Council of Governments unanimously approved a switch to the Multi-Agency Radio Communication System, known as MARCS.

At Thursday’s trustees meeting, police Chief Todd Werth notified trustees that the township will need to purchase 51 new radios and a consolette dispatch radio to replace outdated ones that will not be supported by the network. Boardman will have to pay the $301,811 cost up front, but will be reimbursed by the COG.

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 will allow local law enforcement, for example, to tie into the MARCS system anywhere in Ohio, easing communications with local and regional agencies.

The state will take over the maintenance costs of all towers and software through Motorola once the transition is complete. Austintown and Boardman still will be responsible for the costs of their dispatch consoles, at approximately $120,000 each, but the Mahoning County commissioners have agreed to offset that cost.

Under the COG, console and software maintenance costs have been passed on to the COG’s clients across the county through radio usage fees. The COG serves Canfield city police and the Cardinal Joint Fire District (which covers the city and township), Craig Beach police and fire, Ellsworth Fire Department, Goshen Township, North Jackson, Lowellville, Mahoning County Task Forces, Mill Creek MetroParks, Beaver Township, Campbell, Coitsville, Lake Milton, New Middletown, Poland Township and Poland Village police, Springfield police and fire, Struthers, Washingtonville, Poland’s Western Reserve Joint Fire District, Youngstown and Youngstown State University.

Werth said that while the cost per radio will drop to $5 once the transition to MARCS is complete, it will remain at about $18 for the year or so until that happens.

After an inventory of the 2,000-plus radios used by COG clients, Motorola found that about 300 will not be supported by the MARCS system, and the communities using those radios will incur the cost of replacing them. The radio systems, both portable (handheld) and mobile (installed in vehicles) cost between $4,000 and $5,000. Werth said the cost to reprogram the radios to transition to the MARCS system — about $300 each — will be built into the replacement costs.

BearCom, which handles maintenance locally for Motorola hardware and software, said they have leasing options and other ways to help offset some of those replacement costs. Wertz said Motorola and BearCom made accommodations for some software upgrades that allowed 600 additional radios to be transferable to the MARCS system.

The trustees on Thursday also did their part to support the COG by approving its 2025 budget. The budget must be approved by Austintown and Boardman trustees and Mahoning County commissioners.