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TO: Mayor John Laesch
FROM: Bryan Handell, Commander, Bureau of Administrative Services
Mike Kaufman, Assistant Chief of Support Services
Ram Tyagi, Chief Information Officer
Jeff Anderson, Deputy Chief Information Officer
DATE: July 24, 2025
SUBJECT:
A Resolution authorizing the Director of Purchasing to enter into an agreement with L3Harris of Melbourne, FL to construct a communications tower for a total cost of $481,166.48.
PURPOSE:
This resolution is requesting to construct a communications tower at 2680 Church Road water tower location ("Church Road") to replace the existing communications tower that is no longer structurally sound.
BACKGROUND:
Resolution R13-333 authorized the construction of a communications tower at Church Road to support city operations including Police, Fire, Public Works and to extend the City's network. Subsequently, this space on this tower was also rented by commercial entities.
Resolution R23-384 authorized the implementation of the Project 25 (P25) radio standard which included changing radio control devices on each of the City's six towers utilized by the P25 solution. During the deployment of the P25 solution and upon detailed engineering inspections in the spring of 2025, it was determined that the Church Road tower was not capable of supporting the equipment required for the P25 deployment.
DISCUSSION:
The location of the Church Road tower is an integral component to the success of the radio communication network utilized by Police, Fire and Public Works staff.
City Staff desires a fully-integrated tower, shelter and network solution for this rebuild as opposed to retrofitting equipment through multiple vendors. L3Harris has been a trusted city partner since 2009 and is offering end-to-end services to build this tower, including: Site surveys, Engineering, Permitting, Construction, Integration with the existing network. This reduces coordination ...
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