At a special meeting Tuesday, the Mahaska County Board invited Racom of Marshalltown to submit a bid for a new radio communications system for the County.  The Board also hired Freeman and Mazzitello as communications consultants to review bids for the system and make a recommendation.  Mahaska County Board Chairman Willy Van Weelden explains why Mahaska County needs a new communication system.

“Since digital communications have come, the Federal Communications (Commission) has narrow-banded the old analog band. And so that’s limiting communication because everything we have right now is analog.  So it’s switching to digital….it’s a complete change.”

Van Weelden says he’s not comfortable with having just one bid for a communications system.  He says the new system could cost between $3 million and $10 million.