SILVERTON — Spurred by an offer from Hamilton County to provide pricey radios for free, two local fire departments are switching to the Hamilton County Communications Center for dispatching.

        Golf Manor and the Deer Park-Silverton Joint Fire District are hoping to join the county system sometime next month. Both departments are now being dispatched by Norwood.

        Hamilton County, which already dispatches about 115 fire, ambulance, police and ancillary agencies, is upgrading its radio system and is providing new radios to all of its customers — including the joint district and Golf Manor.

        The two newcomers will also receive the county dispatching service free for a year.

        “I have no complaints with what the city of Norwood has done for us,” Golf Manor Fire Chief Greg Ballman said. “I do think with the upgrades and improvements that Hamilton County is (providing), that is the best move for the city of Golf Manor right now.”

        The local fire officials said joining the county would have been too costly in the past.

        “These are very expensive radios,” Chief Ballman said. “It would have cost us about $80,000 to make the change because of the radios we would have had to buy.”

        Deer Park-Silverton fire officials said it would have cost them about $50,000 to buy radios for the county system.

        Joining the county is expected to streamline communications because it will put the fire district and Golf Manor on the same system as many of their neighboring agencies.

        And the upgraded county operation could eventually allow mobile data terminals in fire vehicles. That technology would provide for such things as automated communication and specific information about individual addresses.

        “The county's got probably one of the best dispatching centers,” Deer Park-Silverton Fire Chief Don Newman said. “They've got everything that you would want.”

        The departments can retrofit the personal pagers firefighters now use, and the switch is not expected to affect service to residents.

        “We're gaining all the way around,” Chief Ballman said.

        Hamilton County commissioners provided $5 million for radio upgrades, said Greg Wenz, operations director for the Hamilton County Communications Center.

        “It's there and it's available, and the county commissioners have agreed to buy radios for anyone who wants to join the system,” Mr. Wenz said. “So that's an incentive.”

        Norwood officials, who had been dispatching the two departments for about 18 months, said losing the agencies won't affect Norwood operations or cost any jobs.

        “They got a pretty good deal from the county,” Norwood Police Chief William Schlie said.

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