Commissioners award contracts to build emergency communications systems

Gonzales County commissioners approved awarding contracts for the construction of communications towers and the procurement of system equipment from Motorola during a Monday, Sept. 22 special called meeting.

Commissioners also approved an order of constitutional amendments election and a notice for the special/joint Nov. 4 election.

Communications towers and equipment

The towers will be built at a cost of $2,676,952, while the equipment will cost a total of $2,221,798

and will be paid for by the General Land Office (GLO) Mitigation Grant the county received in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. They will be used to connect Gonzales County to the Greater Austin/Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS)

“The amount of the authorization to be executed on each of the documents coincides with the (GLO) grant that we have,” County Judge Pat Davis said. “Therefore the grant will pay for the entire process. We won't have to put up anything.”

The emergency radio communications towers to be located in Gonzales, Belmont and Waelder. The project is expected to be completed within 337 days.

Due to disagreements among court members on how best to proceed, the county had bid the emergency communications tower project multiple times in the five years since the Texas General Land Office awarded the county the $6,071,588.57 mitigation grant in 2020 to help pay for an overhaul of the county’s communications system in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which happened in 2017.

Of that amount, $554,139.10 was already used to pay for a new 300-foot guyed tower located in Smiley, which was completed in November 2022 by Victoria Communications Systems. The county also added two generators for a total project cost of around $900,000.

Last December, the county awarded a $4.998 million bid to LCRA by a split 3-2 vote to build the towers as well as two new shelters, three emergency backup generators, a trunked radio network with geographically-redundant central control systems, interface with or replacement of existing dispatch console equipment, and redundant IP-based microwave backhaul.

However, that amount was $73,777.36 over the county’s construction budget, with a construction time of 399 days from notice to proceed to substantial completion. The county would have had to pay the overage out of its own funds, but would own the towers upon them being finished, though it would use LCRA’s own radio system to operate, allowing LCRA to have operational use of the towers as well.

After two new commissioners were elected last year and seated in January, the court rescinded the LCRA bid acceptance in March and decided to simply bid construction of the three towers as well as two new shelters including foundation, lighting and HVAC, electrical service to three sites, and three emergency backup generators and transfer switches and three new fenced tower site compounds with gravel base and grounding systems.

Gonzales County approved an interlocal agreement in August with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that allows TxDOT, which runs the GATRRS system, to use the county’s P25 digital trunking radio system. The county agrees to maintain the county radio system and perform all site facility maintenance and operations.

In return, TxDOT will provide technical support for the radio system through FCC radio frequency coordination services, system upgrade agreement (SUA) sustainment, master core backhaul services and improvements to sites and infrastructure as well as operational oversight. TxDOT also will provide upgrade support to the sites in Smiley, Gonzales, Belmont and Waelder once the other three are completed.

The seven-year contract is a zero dollar contract as each party assumes responsibility to provide the services they are providing.

Election

There are 17 ballot measures recently approved by the Texas Legislature that will be voted on statewide on Nov. 4.

Earlier this year, a two-thirds majority of the state Legislature passed the joint resolutions calling for the constitutional amendment elections, along with the state’s budget for the next two years, which includes $51 billion for property tax cuts.

A majority of the proposed constitutional amendments are measures meant to lower taxes for various Texans, including homeowners; businesses; elderly and disabled homeowners; spouses of veterans; homeowners who had their home destroyed in a fire; property owners with border security infrastructure and those who sell animal feed.

Other proposed amendments would prevent the state from imposing additional taxes on personal or business capital gains; securities transactions and those working in securities and inheritances. Other proposals would fund water infrastructurel the Texas State Technical College and research on dementia treatment and prevention.

A few proposals would amend the constitution to: limit when a person can be released on bail; enshrine parental rights; clarify citizenship requirements for Texas voters and overhaul the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.