East Holmes Fire, county team to bring upgraded emergency radio system into play

The East Holmes Fire District and Holmes County Engineer have teamed to add another MARCS (Multi Agency Radio Communications System) tower in Holmes County.

MARCS field operations manager Dick Miller and Marlin Bradford, a programmer for MARCS, were on hand to share information about the tower that has been erected along County Road 120 in Berlin. The tower went into operation Saturday.

East Holmes Fire Chief John Schlabach said system will improve communication among the fire and other first responders.

Schlabach said the current VHF system, which was installed in 2013, had three radio towers − Berlin, Millersburg and south of Nashville.

"When we put that system in, all of the public safety, including the county engineer, townships and sheriff's department, all fire and EMS, health department, were all on that system," Schlabach said. "That system is now at end of life. Motorolla no longer made radios that were compatible to that system, or software support.

"We knew we were going to have to look long-term to solve this, so what a lot of surrounding counties have done is they have gone to the state's MARCS system," the chief said. "That includes Holmes County, where the Sheriff's Office went five years ago, and some of the other fire departments as well."

East Holmes was the last department to go on the system because of the location of the existing towers.

Why East Holmes delayed joining MARCS

"We had great radio coverage with the old system because we had a tower right in Berlin," Schlabach said. "Prior to this project, there were only two MARCS towers in Holmes County. One was out on County Road 168, just west of the Tuscarawas County line, and the other one is at West Holmes High School.

"Because of that, we didn't have as good radio coverage as we did with the old system," he continued. "It worked great with mobiles, but we rely on a lot of portable radios. "

Schlabach noted it was in the best interest of East Holmes Fire to move to MARCS, but it wanted to improve on the infrastructure of the MARCS signal strength in the Berlin jurisdiction before making the move. Adding the tower was essential.

Because radios are one of firefighters' most important tools, the project was important.

"For us specifically, we rely on volunteer response covering parts of five townships with 45 volunteers," he said. "It's not unusual for our volunteers to respond direct to scene. They rely on portable radios. That's why we wanted to fix the infrastructure first."

A beneficial partnership

"The second reason was we had adequate radio signal in most of our buildings, and fire code requires that there be emergency responder radio signal in buildings," Schlabach said. "I hated to make a decision to switch from the current radio system that was adequate to a different system that had a weaker signal."

Schlabach said the East Holmes Fire Department felt there was no better way to spend money that was raised by fundraisers. It typically costs around $3 million to construct a MARCS tower and get it operational, but thanks to partnering with the Engineer's Office and MARCS, East Holmes only had to invest less than $100,000 into the project.

"We knew we had to form a partnership going into this, and we found that with the Holmes County Engineer and MARCS," he said. "That's the only reason this project was accomplished."

Holmes County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Jason Troyer said from an EMA standpoint, MARCS enables interoperability, which is key.

"In the past, we would have to lend out radios because East Holmes was the only one on turbo, but with MARCS it is designed for interoperability between counties and different resources," Troyer said. "This is a big plus in moving Holmes County forward in protecting its citizens. We're very fortunate East Holmes Fire, the Engineer's Office and MARCS have come together to get this project done. It is a very big benefit for Holmes County."

Engineer Chris Young said the project has been well-managed and done efficiently, thanks to the efforts of Schlabach.

Bradford added it takes extra effort to see a project like this through and Schlabach did an excellent job of making that happen.

An example of what should be done

Miller said MARCS began around 2000, and since then more than 370 towers have been erected across the state.

"This is another tower that will add coverage and capacity," he said. "We have 3,100 agencies on the system and over 152,000 radios on the system. It's a great project and a classic example of what should happen. We have a county engineer, a local fire department and the state of Ohio all working together for the betterment of everybody."

Miller noted MARCS towers are Class 3, engineered to slightly higher standards, such as being able to withstand a quarter-inch of radial ice on every piece of equipment on the tower. It also has to be able to withstand a 90-MPH wind gust.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: East Holmes joins rest of Holmes using MARCS emergency radio system