By MATT PIKE
Buchanan County is in need of updates to its communications systems before the current system hardware reaches the end of its life.
Current Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner Scott Nelson says currently the entire system at the Law Enforcement Center, as a whole, is technically around two to three years away from fully needing to be replaced.
"Something is end of life at the end of 2027, another part is 2028, and another part is 2029, they all intermingle, and the person who's going to replace the hardware of the system that they've picked says you can do it in stages, but they all kind of work together," Nelson says on the KFEQmunnity show.
However, the better plan Nelson says should be to just replace the system all at once, to essentially save money on the project.
"It's one of those things if you do it in phases it costs x plus two, whereas if you just jumped in the pool and started it all at once it would just be x," Nelson explains. "And that x is a big number, it's eight, nine million dollars."
The project would be covered between both Buchanan County and the City of St. Joseph, around a 50-50 split in the cost. Nelson hopes that soon a plan can be come up with to get the project covered, so the communication system can be upgraded.
"I'm thinking within the next month that has to be settled, what are we doing to do, what's the timeframe, and how is the financing for each entity going to play out in that regard?" Nelson says.
The project will take some time to complete, but Nelson hopes to have things up and going at least before he leaves office. If not, he does know most likely incoming Presiding Commissioner Bill Falkner knows the situation and will be brought more up to speed in the coming months as well.
Interview
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