Reinke says Harris, the manufacturer of the radio system, will meet with County Commissioners on February 28 to explain what they're doing to fix the problems. He says it's taking time because one main issue has been that each problem inevitably leads to others. "As Harris has been working through the various problems, they have uncovered other things they wanted to look into, so they're trying to be very thorough. What they're saying is this is like peeling an onion, and as they open a problem, there may be another component or two to that."

 

Reinke says at the initial audit, 32 significant problems were uncovered, which lead to missing, dropped, or garbled transmissions. One partial solution is to install another tower in West Bend to help with signal strength, and Reinke says the District is waiting on permits and Tribal input. Harris, which Reinke says supplies nearly 70% of radio systems for the military and countless other emergency districts, has been attentive to the problem and has amassed a large team of engineers and others to solve it as quickly as possible. "We have every reason to believe that they can solve and resolve this issue, but we're very unhappy that things have degraded to the point to where they are, and we need Harris, and expect Harris, and are relying on Harris, to fix the system to make it work the way that it's supposed to."