Utilizing funds from a General Improvement Fund (GIF) grant managed by the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District, Inc. in Harrison, and made available with the assistance of State Representative Karen Hopper, the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office has been able to purchase and acquire four new hand-held digital radios at a cost of $2,700.00.  These radios will be assigned to the Arkansas Game and Fish Wildlife Officers who serve in Baxter County.

     The Sheriff’s Office recently acquired new radio equipment for all of its vehicles and deputies that will operate in digital format, as opposed to the analog format that the previous radio equipment was designed for.  This new digital equipment was made available through grants obtained by the Baxter County Office of Emergency Management for that purpose. 

     Once the Sheriff’s Office finalizes the change-over to digital format, communications with other agencies and officers still operating on the old analog system will no longer be possible.  Therefore, in order to continue and maintain communications and an inter-operable capability between the Sheriff’s Office and the Arkansas Game and Fish Wildlife Officers, these four new digital radios were purchased with the GIF grant offered by Representative Hopper.

     The new radios were distributed to Wildlife Officers this afternoon during a presentation at the Sheriff’s Office attended by State Representative Hopper, NWAEDD Executive Director J. Michael Norton, several Wildlife Officers from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and other guests.

/s/ John F. Montgomery,
Baxter County Sheriff