Gainesville city commission approves next step in sale of trunked radio system to Alachua County
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Today the Gainesville City Commission, sitting as the General Policy Committee, approved an interlocal agreement that establishes terms and conditions for the sale of Gainesville Regional Utility’s (GRU) trunked radio system to Alachua County.
The City and County agreed on terms for the purchase in March, and today’s vote approved the interlocal agreement that implemented those terms. The Alachua County Commission is scheduled to approve the same agreement on Tuesday, and both commissions are expected to approve the final purchase and sale agreement in August, with closing expected in September.
The trunked radio system provides radio communications to all public safety agencies in the county, and each agency currently pays GRUCom to use the system; the County expressed interest in buying the system in January 2022 after GRUCom quadrupled the bills to its client agencies in 2021, and the County Commission later decided to allocate part of their American Rescue Plan funds to either purchase GRUCom’s system or build and run their own system. The County also intends to increase the system’s coverage in rural areas.
The County agreed to pay $8 million for the system, and the funds will be used to reduce GRUCom debt; under the terms of the agreement, the County will assume ownership of the system on October 1, 2023, and payments for service from all users will be fixed for five years. GRU will pay $164,000 per year for five years, and the City of Gainesville will pay $937,000 for two years and $750,000 for the next three years.
GRU Chief Business Services Officer Lewis Walton told the commission that GRU and the City will save $561,000 in payments over the five years when compared to their current payments, and GRU will also save another $1.4 million in operation and maintenance costs, for an overall savings of almost $7.6 million over five years. The County will pay GRUCom for network services and the use of their towers.
Commissioner Casey Willits made a motion to approve the terms of the agreement, and the motion passed unanimously.
How much of $$$ do they plan on losing or wasting on this deal?
Seems like whichever decision they make the taxpayers end up losing?
The county needs to demand that the city put half the $8 million into an escrow account to pay the out-years payments.
Next year this bunch will say they can’t pay the $937k.