ClarificationOne portion of an article published last week describing activities of the Largo City Commission erroneously reported that there had been a savings of expense in the Police Department because the county had taken over dispatch. Chief Lester Aradi of the Largo Police Department has provided a description of the action that did result in savings. Aradi said, "In our (Capital Improvement Program) we had to take on the cost of upgrading our dispatch consoles from analog to digital. It is the last step required by the national interoperability plan as all our portable and mobile radios have already been converted. Pinellas County Communications was going to supply us with one upgraded console but we needed to pay for the remaining six. Then Pinellas County Communications received federal Homeland Security money that enabled them to pay for our remaining consoles, absent telephone (soon to be microwave) connections. Pinellas County Dispatch is not part of this equation. We will still be doing our own dispatch." The Gazette regrets the error. - Leo Coughlin
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