With a January, 2013 deadline for narrow banding of radio communications equipment under Federal Communications Commission regulations, the Ellis County Commissioners’ Court is continuing to keep the project on track.

“The committee met, we scored, we discussed,” said Special Projects Director Kathy Eriksen of the two proposals received in response to the RFP for VHF Radio System Narrow Banding. “It was unanimous. It is the committee’s recommendation, as well as the recommendation of our consultant, Tim Driscoll, that we award this bid to BearCom.”

According to Eriksen, BearCom’s pricing was higher, but the price was outweighed by other positive factors, such as quality of proposed equipment, technical knowledge, and previous involvement in the project.

The Court voted to award the bid to BearCom as recommended by the committee.

Other business in the short meeting consisted of two appointments – a primary representative and an alternate representative for Ellis and Kaufman Counties, along with the cities of Waxahachie, Midlothian, Ennis, Red Oak, Forney, Terrell and Kaufman on the Regional Transportation Council of the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area on the North Central Texas Council of Governments for a two year term, beginning June 1, 2012 and running through May 31, 2014. The appointees – Ellis County Commissioner Ron Brown and Kaufman County Commissioner Ray Clark, respectively – have already been serving in the same capacities for some time.