Jackson Free Press

Councilman Ben Allen just posted the following news on Adam's Talk this week about the 911 saga:

The offer for a donation of "system remedies" was delivered (and accepted) by the Mayor today. At no charge to the City, MA/COM has offered the City two options for metro "interoperability" and until the State RFP's are issued and in place. We just saved $8.5M if the Supervisors rescind their vote and now can use that $ on State of the Art equipment on State systems soon.

This story has been unfolding in the JFP weeks; click here to get up to speed and to read Councilman Allen's enlightening posts on the topics.

Previous Commentsshow

Seems the county -- or at least Hinds County Emergency Management Director Larry Fisher -- doesn't want to work with the donated equipment. An offer to connect Jackson's and Hinds County's emergency radio systems with donated equipment was rejected by the county's emergency management director. ... Fisher said if Hinds County accepted the offer, it would in effect replace the county's Motorola system. "I don't know of a company big enough to give that kind of gift without strings attached. It could be a way of Jackson locking in a system," Fisher said. Company giving with strings? Like Motorola? Anybody checked this guys finances lately?

Rex

Feb 16 2006

Agreed Rex, I think Fisher has put his foot in his mouth. He's wants us to believe that M/A Com could be influencing our decisions by "gifting" the city a patch. Yet his choice of an $8.5 million dollar system is supposedly free of bias. There is no way someone would go against the wishes of so many civic leaders - including the state - to secure this bid without some kind of heavy "smoozing" going on. I hope Anderson and Fisher are proud of themselves if they get their way. It's not like it is their money or anything.

pikersam

Feb 16 2006

Agreed, Pike. Either Mr. Fisher et al are not very smart people and/or they are playing the public for fools. Of course, there is some evidence of late that the strategy works. But I do believe people are starting to wake up and pay attention more.

DonnaLadd

Feb 16 2006

I wonder if Jackson Communications is the dealer or is it Shank? It may be neither; but, Jackson Comm. moved out of Jackson several years ago to a new place in Pearl. They appear to be one of the biggest in the area. However, they still moved when they could have built in Jackson.

pikersam

Feb 16 2006