Voters will decide in November whether to spend $28 million on a new radio system for the 911 dispatch center and first responders.
The measure would cost 9 cents per $1,000 of assessed value — or $18 per year for the owner of a home assessed at $200,000.
Located near the Medford airport, Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon, or ECSO, answers 911 calls for all of Jackson County and Crater Lake National Park. The center also dispatches police, firefighters and paramedics.
“The radio systems that are used here currently are extremely old,” said Michael Mecham, a journeyman radio technician with Day Wireless Systems who works on the dispatch center’s communications equipment.
Most of the radio equipment at the center is at least a dozen years old, with some parts up to 30 years old, he said.