History

Organized as a Council of Governments under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 167, the Central Ohio Interoperable Radio System is a collaboration between Delaware County, the City of Dublin, the City of Worthington and the City of Hilliard formed in October of 2009. Using $1.9 million dollars in grant funding from the Public Safety Interoperability Communications (PSIC) grant fund, the City of Dublin merged their four channel trunked radio system with the City of Worthington’s three channel conventional radio system and interconnected with the Motorola P25 master site located in Delaware County.

The system is divided into two simulcast cells. An eleven site, eight channel system serves all of the safety forces in Delaware County while a three site, seven channel system serves Dublin, Worthington and Hilliard. The COG built and owns the south subsystem while the Delaware County subsystem, along with the master site, continue to be owned by the Delaware County Commissioners.

The COIRS governance structure was developed by an advisory committee, originally named the Dublin, Delaware, Worthington 800MHz committee (DDW800). After significant research, the DDW800 committee recommended the formation of a Council of Governments be formed to own the assets of the south simulcast and to manage the system. On October 5, 2009 the COG received the approval of the member agencies and officially took ownership of the DDW800 assets. On December 15, 2009, the COG board officially changed the name of the system to the Central Ohio Interoperable Radio System or COIRS.

The COIRS subsystem was built using the two existing Dublin tower sites located at 7697 Avery Road and 4000 Hard Road. A new 240′ tower site was built at 6199 Huntley Road to service Worthington and surrounding areas. The COIRS subsystem first went on the air on December 15, 2009 when the original Dublin city trunked system was turned off after 10 years of service. Worthington went live on the system on December 21, 2009.

On January 31, 2014, the COIRS governing board approved the addition of the City of Hilliard to the council of governments agreement. Hilliard became the first jurisdiction to be added to the COIRS system as a full COG member.

On October 15, 2014, the radio tower at Darby High School in Hilliard went live.

On June 16, 2017, the COIRS governing board approved the addition of the City of Upper Arlington to the council of governments agreement.

On January 8, 2018, the radio tower at the Upper Arlington Fire Station located on Reed Road went live.