OVSCAN

LISBON — Columbiana County Sheriff Ray Stone will use some of his funding to obtain a $40,000 state grant to purchase equipment that will help his deputies communicate when on a call.

Stone said he will use $13,333 as qualifying matching funds to obtain the $40,000 grant for small radio booster units that will increase the strength of walkie-talkies used by the deputies. The units will go into the trunk of each cruiser.

Last summer, the sheriff’s office purchased the MARCS radio system for $191,154, with county commissioners borrowing the money and making the payments. MARCS — short for Multi-Agency Radio Communication System — was supposed to eliminate the problem of communication blackouts occurring between sheriff’s dispatchers and deputies when in areas of the county where radio reception is poor. “Even with MARCS there are still some weak spots in the system,” Stone said, which is why they applied for the grant to acquire the booster units about the same time they purchased MARCS. The $13,333 in matching funds to qualify for the grant will come from the sheriff’s communication fund.

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