Grundy County Commissioners are looking into the costs of additional equipment to improve the system that allows emergency communications for the Galt area. It is in response to what commissioners are calling a federal mandate to go with a narrow band radio frequency for 911.

Experience so far with the system has resulted in a drop in transmission strength for pagers used in the Galt area. The radios there, according to commissioners, can receive a tone, but no other audio. In an effort to improve the signal, the county is looking into the possible purchase of a Motorola 40 watt repeater to go on an existing tower north of Galt.

Quotes provided today by Brad Johnson of Midwest Mobile of St. Joseph say a new repeater could cost more than 88 hundred dollars ($8,862) while the cost of a re-conditioned repeater is just over 26 hundred dollars ($2,655).

An additional expense is the estimated 450 dollars for modification of an F-C-C license to accommodate the repeater site. Commissioners will continue discussions with Terry Wynne of the Galt Fire Department and with Brad Johnson of Midwest Mobile.

Commissioners this morning also met with Bill Homann, the Director of Administration and Compliance for Premium Standard Farms. The discussion, described as advisory in nature, involved plans for putting up an additional barn (on the Donoho farm) along “county line road” in extreme southeast Grundy County. A private contractor there raises pigs for Premium Standard Farms.