Article submitted by James Master, Managing Editor of The Pilot News
During last week’s meeting of the John Glenn School Board, two purchases were approved concerning upgrading radio upgrades and roofing at Walkerton Elementary School (WES).
The cost to upgrade the Motorola Radio fleet from ERS Wireless totaled $76,411.26.
“Back in 2019, we began providing some transportation pickup point, shuttle service, in Greene Township. And so when we started providing that bus there on the corner of Orange Road and I believe that’s Roosevelt…when we started providing that service we stretched our radio capabilities kind of beyond their reach,” said Superintendent Christopher Winchell.
The superintendent went on to say that it was at that point when they decided to look at upgrading the radio system from an analogue to a digital system.
“It wasn’t really in the cards for us at that time, but we upgraded our repeater from the 50 watt repeater to a 100 watt repeater and that was kind of a bandaid if you will,” he said stating that the “bandaid” allowed them to reach into Greene Township.
However, John Glenn School Corporation anticipates the expansion into Greene Township. Winchell stated that upgrading the radio system would be the first infrastructure step in migrating to a full digital system.
The board was given three quotes and also a recommendation to approve the bid from ERS Wireless for the above mentioned amount. “They have an excellent reputation of doing large projects for the local police department and EMS so they come highly recommended,” said Winchell.
One of the board members asked if there was any value to the equipment that would be replaced, in terms of reselling. Superintendent Winchell stated that in the current market there’s really not much value for them.
According to the superintendent, the expense had been budgeted in the 2019 General Obligation Bond. The migration from analogue to digital would ideally take place during the summer, Superintendent Winchell told the board.
The second item was roofing at WES to be performed by Morris and Sons, Inc. for a total of $149,990.
“Along with our ongoing facilities improvement plan, part of that is a roofing plan and our goal has been to try and do a $150,000 in roofing per year out of our operations fund. Now, we’ve done some bigger chunks of that at times through some of our bond monies, but from our just ongoing operations fund and our year-to-year plan,” explained Winchell.
Again the project would start in the summer. Also, like the other project, three quotes were presented to the board. The lowest bid was from Morris and Sons, Inc.
