The changeover of emergency communication equipment in the county will be under way before long.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors accepted a bid for a general obligation bond to fund the transition of county radios to the Mississippi Wireless Information Network or MSWIN.

The board received two bids Monday for the $3.5 million bond the county solicited. Handcock Bank, based in Gulfport, won the bid by offering a 2.28 percent interest rate. Trustmark Bank’s bid of a 2.39 percent interest rate was not accepted. Both bids included a required $70,000 good faith check.

Board president Richard George said the bond was needed to pay for the equipment and tower improvements. Emergency management director John Elfer said the county is actually saving money because there is already a MSWIN tower located in Edwards.

“The money is going to be used to purchase radios and infrastructure equipment for one site in the city, which the city is paying for, and one site in the county and then the other site in Edwards,” Elfer said. “The city is helping costs here because we are both going to use the same system.”

The county and the city are both making the transition to the MSWIN system because the current system is obsolete.

“The present radio system is over 20 years old,” county administrator John Smith said. “We either buy a new system and partner with the city like we did in the ’80s or we migrate to the state’s radio system.”

By joining MSWIN, officials like the sheriff’s office, firefighters, 911 operators and public works departments are able to connect statewide and locally in emergency situations.

“We can talk anywhere in the state,” Elfer said.

Other items on the agenda at Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting included:

• For years the county and the Vicksburg Warren School District have had an agreement for the old Culkin School property to be used by the Warren County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement training. The lease between the school district and the county will be up for renewal in April. The board voted to renew the lease for a term of May 1, 2016, to December 31, 2019. A termination clause has been added into the lease where if any party chooses to break the lease they can do so through written statement 90 days in advance.

“That property is not seeing any other planned use so it made sense to go ahead and invest in the frequency of renewal and all the paperwork that goes with it since it is an arrangement that can be canceled at any time for the convenience of the schools,” George said.

• Two companies submitted RFPs, or request for proposals, for Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day scheduled for June 11. One of those companies was Care Environmental of Myrtle Beach, S.C., which has worked with the county twice before for the collection day. The other company to submit an RFP is Tradebe of Marysville, Ind. Both companies submitted a required $1,000 bid bond and were taken under advisement by the board. A team was also appointed to analyze the proposals.

• The board approved a solicitation from Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. for a $100 advertisement to promote the Mu Xi Omega Chapter’s Biennial Service Luncheon scheduled for Saturday, May 14 at the Vicksburg City Auditorium. The luncheon is set to honor the accomplishments of local people and organizations.

“They bring in quite a number of out of town participants to the community and generate revenue. We usually support those types of efforts,” George said.

• Ed Gibson provided the board with results from an independent survey he took in the Silver Creek Subdivision of Bovina. The survey asked residents if they were for or against establishing a quiet zone in the community. Of the 50 homes in the subdivision, 12 responded with 10 in favor and two opposed to the proposed quiet zone. The board took the information under consideration.