The Sedona City Council unanimously approved a linking purchase agreement on Tuesday, Jan. 13, with Zetron Inc. and the Sedona Police Department for $755,510 to add a third radio channel for local first-responders along with adding Slide Rock, Indian Point south of Slide Rock and Verde Valley Medical Center for radio transmissions to improve coverage.
“We’re asking for a third radio channel because it will improve operational flexibility and reduce channel congestion,” SPD Support Services Manager Erin Loeffler said. “For example, when we do the [RunSedona] event, we operate [event radio traffic] and regular police communications on the same channel.”
The third channel will keep all radio traffic related to the marathon on a separate channel freeing up the main channel’s radio traffic for regular SPD operations, Loeffler said.
The use of multiple radio channels is a law enforcement common practice, with Loeffler stating that local agencies vary in the number of channels available. Cottonwood Police Department has 16 radio channels, three of which are police-only, in addition to backup channels. Camp Verde Marshal’s Office operates with three radio channels, including a backup channel.
Council previously approved the replacement of SPD’s radio network on April 8, 2025, at a cost of $1,107,587.30 to replace an aging analog system with a digital system. Zetron is replacing SPD’s current set of four receivers, and two transmitters to be nine transceivers and five receivers and will now add the three new sites council approved on Jan. 13.
The newly approved sites “will increase our mobile and portal radio coverage towards the Village of Oak Creek,” Loeffler said “This was actually just a bonus because of Indian Point and Side Rock. It wasn’t intentional regarding the VOC, however, we do have a lot of officers and other staff members that travel to and from or live in the VOC … and we also respond to calls for service when needed, for assisting Yavapai County, and then … the Slide Rock [and] Indian Point locations would increase the coverage along north State Route 89A, which is where we travel when transporting individuals to Coconino County jail.”
The VVMC location increases radio coverage to the 3,422 acres of land that Sedona annexed in March, including the Wastewater Treatment Plant and the city-owned Dells parcels on the south side of State Route 89A.
Loeffler estimated that there is $259,000 in cost savings for approving the changes now because Sedona Fire District is also upgrading its radio system through Zetron.
Council’s decision allows “for both systems to be simultaneously engineered and calibrated together,” she said.
SFD’s Governing Board similarly unanimously approved a $1,396,025 change order with Zetron during its Dec. 16 meeting. SFD is also converting its current analog radio system to a digital.
“The change order addresses the needs of the upgraded radio system to help support better coverage, redundancy, and reliability, and allows the crews to have the same radio channels at all locations,” SFD stated. “This improves the man down mayday function of Radio Channel 1 to have a larger footprint, and to give better performance in areas of increased call volume and inside fire stations that have historically insufficient radio coverage.”
“This has been an identified need for both police and fire since 2012,” SFD Fire Chief Ed Mezulis said.
The project kicked off on July 21 and is currently under Preliminary Design that is 30% completed, this is the first phase of the project and the longest of four phases followed by system building and test, installation of the radio and its support equipment, and finally SPD technical training on the new equipment and a system cutoff. The project’s scheduled completion is by the middle of July.
One member of the public spoke against the purchase.
