City Upgrades Fire Department Radios
City Upgrades Fire Department Radios
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – The Water Valley Fire Department will switch to the Mississippi Wireless Integrated System (MS-WIN) for communications after city aldermen voted to spend $18,847.50 to purchase eight new handheld radios and a base station for firefighters. MS-WIN is statewide radio network and is already in use by the county’s fire departments, the sheriff’s department and the medical responders.
“It’s time to change it over and get everybody compatible with the same radio system,” Mayor Larry Hart explained prior to the vote authorizing the purchase of the radios. Hart also said the city has a fund to tap for the purchase so the money will not come out of the city’s general fund.
“Are the police going to have the same radio system?” Alderman Larry Bell asked.
“It’s probably coming. He can communicate now with the county, but it is not this system,” Hart explained.
Hart said both fire chief Sherman Gooch and police chief Mike King recommended the switch.
“Plus we have been needing new radios for a long time, we have been putting it off for a long time,” Hart added.
• Accepted a recommendation from Vivian Snider to accept the bid from G & O Supply Company for the purchase of plastic culverts during 2016. Also accepted was Snider’s recommendation to accept Coburn Supply Company’s bid for metal and concrete culverts. The city solicits the culvert bids annually.
• Accepted a recommendation from Snider to select Mechanics Bank’s bid to serve as the city’s depository. The bank bid 0.51 percent interest for the money banked in 2016.
• Approved the minutes from the January board meeting.
• Heard an update from Water Valley Main Street Manager Mickey Howley, who reported two films with Water Valley connections would be included in the lineup in the upcoming Oxford Film Festival. Howley said Yalo is a 10-minute documentary on Yalobusha Brewing Com-pany. The second film is Forced Move, a horror movie that was filmed in Water Valley last year.
• Approved President’s Day, February 15, as a holiday for the city.
