Hamilton County Board of Supervisors Chairman Rick Young showed real frustration Tuesday while discussing the county’s digital pagers.

He is frustrated because the 80 pagers that have been issued to volunteer first responders in the county are out of service too often. That impacts their response to emergencies.

Hamilton County Sheriff Alex Pruismann is in total agreement.

“Ten years ago, this was state-mandated,” said Pruismann. “So less than 10 years ago, we all had to switch from analog to digital pagers.”

Those don’t always work the way they should.

Young made an open plea to the public for patience, understanding and assistance from the local media regarding the problems.

Both Young and Pruismann said that when there is an emergency in Hamilton County, one person has a two-way radio — such as the sheriff — which works fine. This allows him to communicate to first responders who have the pagers. The pagers provide key response information: where to go, how many people are responding; and where more coverage is needed.

That is, when they work.

They cited a recent incident in which only three people responded. Those three were the only ones who received the notification, they said.

Consequently, first responders are having to use their personal cell phones in emergencies. They can download an app, called “I am responding,” which helps, because it works like a group text.

But that’s not the way it is supposed to be, according to Young.

“These are less than 10 years old,” he said. “All towns got pagers. The county bought 60 of them for volunteers, but they are not working.”

The pagers cost $1,000 each. The two-way radios cost about $5,000; they work fine.

Each department has at least one two-way radio, and the rest of the communication is supposed to go through the pagers.

Young explained that they have contacted the only company that can work on these pagers, Electronic Engineering, Fort Dodge.

Pruismann said, “We are not allowed to input any changes to the pagers. Right now we have a service contract that is in place, and this issue is well within the agreement.”

Electronic Engineering, they said, doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to address the problem.

Electronic Engineering, they said, doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to address the problem.

However, the firm did attempt to troubleshoot the issue later Tuesday, Young said.

He said the company took a look at the Kamrar tower and suggested the problem may be linked to a lightning strike.