As we’ve reported, Governor Terry Branstad signed a bill in Adel Wednesday to create and begin paying for a $58 million statewide interoperable communications system, which will allow emergency responders to communicate with each other all around the state.

Guthrie County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mike Dickson and State Representative Clel Baudler spoke out against that action at Thursday’s Board meeting.

Dickson questions what’s wrong with continuing to use current dispatch systems and worries the statewide system could be a waste of taxpayer dollars. Baudler, who also served as an Iowa State Patrol trooper for over 30 years agrees, adding the system could convolute emergency conversations. “If we’ve got a triple fatality on Interstate 80, with traffic backed up four miles, two helicopters coming in, the last thing I need is to talk to some ambulance driver, firetruck driver or fireman, and that’s what interoperability is. I want to talk to a dispatcher, and that’s all.”

The bill allows for approximately $4.3 million to be allocated to the Department of Public Safety to begin establishing the statewide interoperable communications system.