Top Rendell administration officials argued last week that the state's $368 million-and-counting emergency radio network does a fine job.

But the people who actually use the system say it's unreliable.

Talk about mixed signals. Whom to believe?

We'd tend to pick the people — the state troopers and PennDOT workers — who have to depend on what's increasingly looking like a multimillion-dollar boondoggle.

The 800-megahertz radio network was sold to the state, and later to county governments, as a high-tech answer to Pennsylvania's communications needs. But the system was plagued with problems from the get-go — just for instance, the company hired to build radio towers went bankrupt &tstr; and PAStarNet, as it's called, has never lived up to its billing.

Indeed, two years ago the Lancaster County Commissioners decided to stop throwing good money after bad, and pulled the plug on the county's contract to build the same kind of network.

It was, we believe, a wise decision.

Should state government follow suit?

The Legislature needs to do more homework on the question, of course. Disagreements about the operations of StarNet came at a state Senate hearing last week. Chairmen of the two committees that held the hearing decided to call a recess for more talks because of the stark contrasts in evaluations of StarNet's effectiveness coming from bosses and workers.

But the state will have to spend at least $57 million more — at least — to finish the network.

And this is a network whose technological foundation dates to the '90s. Is the 800 MHz backbone obsolete before it's even finished?

Lancaster County came to that conclusion in 2008, after continuing to run into problems with its own 800 MHz network after spending about $14 million on it.

County commissioners decided that a different system utilizing the already-constructed towers was a better investment of tax dollars with more assurance both that the equipment would work when needed and that emergency response teams could afford the radios and other gear needed to connect with the system.

Commissioner Scott Martin told the Senate hearing last week that an iconic photo of emergency workers walking through a field after the Nickel Mines schoolhouse shootings in 2006 had nothing to do with a search for evidence. Instead, he said, the searchers were looking for a state trooper's StarNet portable radio. The trooper had tossed it aside in disgust when he couldn't get the radio to work.

Yet big-name witnesses at the hearing, including Administration Secretary Naomi Wyatt, insisted StarNet works well and that problems identified with the system are being fixed. She told the Capitolwire.com news service after the hearing that she was surprised to hear complaints from troopers and PennDOT employees about inconsistent coverage and other glitches.

Perhaps administration officials need to listen more closely.

No communications system is perfect. But flaws in the 800 MHz network seem to be worrisome enough to warrant a second look.

Politicians and bureaucrats don't like to admit mistakes. Constituents have more respect, though, for leaders who have the guts to do the right thing, even if it means a mea culpa.

The top priority for everyone in Harrisburg ought to be an emergency radio system that works when police, firefighters and ambulance personnel need it — no matter what kind of system it turns out to be. That's what rank-and-file first responders were saying in Harrisburg last week.

Gov. Rendell and friends: Can you hear them now? blog comments powered by Disqus