HINDS COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
The Hinds County Board of Supervisors seems to really like the services of Stacey Stowers of Airwave LLC, and Nathan Hargrove.
They work for different companies, but out of the same nondescript office space in Jackson.
In February, the Board wanted to purchase two-way radios for Byram Police that Hargrove was selling.
Hargrove is also a consultant for the county, but his radios were $10,000 more than what the county finally decided on.
A year ago, according to minutes from a Supervisors' meeting, Supervisor Phil Fisher wanted to void the tornado siren maintenance contract with Airwave Consultants for what he called non-performance.
The motion died, but Supervisor Peggy Calhoun said she wanted to revisit the contract once the new sirens were installed.
They're up, but Airwave is still cashing in.
Stowers talked to 3 On Your Side extensively on the phone.
Stowers tells us that, on top of the $110,000 a year his company is making on the siren maintenance contract, Airwave is also raking in about $720,000 a year for radio maintenance, and $120,000 a year for site maintenance for communication towers.
That amounts to about $950,000 a year.
Stowers admits he's the only employee of Airwave, and that he contracts out some of the work.
But that's not the impression we got from Hargrove when we visited their office.
When we asked Hargrove if there were any other employees of Airwave, he told us "They're all out in the field".
Stowers was not present at the time.
We asked Supervisor Doug Anderson if the siren maintenance contract is even necessary, since the new sirens carry a 5-year warranty.
"Yes, we are looking at the warranty," Anderson said, adding that he's very happy with the service the county is getting from Airwave.
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