GULF SHORES, Alabama - For the first time, Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw said, the purchase of some new radio equipment will allow all city departments to communicate via those radios.

Explaining how it works, however, is another matter entirely.

“It’s as clear as mud,” the chief deadpanned at a recent council work session.

The city agreed to pay about $125,000 for 30 new radios and a moto bridge that will enable all departments in the city talk on the new 700 system. Even though they may not have 700 system radios.

 Most departments already have access to them, Brokenshaw said.

“The fire department right now has their mobile radios on the 700 system,” he said. “The police department has all their radios on the 700 system. The lifeguards have their radios on the 700 system.”

The new radios will be distributed to the executive branch, parks and recreation and public works.

“It will put radios in the hands of key people throughout the city,” Brokenshaw said. “In doing this, in getting these radios it will tie the entire city so that you would be able to talk to the entire city on the radios.”

The entire city doesn’t necessarily need the expensive 700 radios, Public Works Director Mark Acreman pointed out. Crews operating heavy equipment or mowers wouldn’t need to haul around expensive radios with the danger of dropping them.

Brokenshaw also pointed out that with the radios they now have and moto bridge, they can be in contact over one channel to their supervisors.

“This is the best bang for the buck,” Acreman said. “We can communicate amongst the management.”

Brokenshaw said without the radios some departments, like public works, can’t communicate with every other department.

“Right now we can’t talk to anybody in public works on even our old radios,” he said. “But this will allow us with that moto bridge to talk to the guys out on the backhoe or whoever.  It would really be the first time.”

It’s also a cost-saving measure not having to buy all new 700 radios when the moto bridge will give all departments one channel to communicate with any other department.

Where Brokenshaw says more are needed are in his departments mobile units. He’s holding out hope for a grant to pay for those units.

“Us to get them in our vehicles would be another $120,000 for our vehicles and our base stations for our stations,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got a moto bridge for our frequency so those radios in our vehicles can operate off of one channel that they will go through to the 700.”

He believes patience and applying for grants might cover that cost in the long run. At least he wants to exhaust the avenue before asking the city to pay for them.

“I’m just hardheaded enough that I just don’t want to give away $120,000 if we can possibly get it,” he said. “We’re going to apply for that firefighter assistance grant one more time. If we get it, that’d be the greatest thing in the world. If we don’t then we can go back and use other money. We’re not compromising anything by taking these three or four months to do that.”

Brokenshaw said the 30 new radios and moto bridge is the best stop for the city until the grant process is complete.

“I feel very confident in doing this.” He said. “As far as the city goes, that’s going to tie us all together.”