"We want to try to move forward with this so we and your departments can communicate more effectively," Swiderski told a gathering of municipal police chiefs at the monthly E-911 commission meeting.

"Everything seems to be moving in a positive direction," Schererville Police Chief David Dowling said. 

Cedar Lake Town Council President Randy Niemeyer agreed. "It is absolutely positive," he said.

The towns of Cedar Lake and Schererville have sued the county over its refusal to provide the county's full E-911 capabilities to communicate simultaneously with multiple public safety agencies on a 24-hour basis.

That dispute has been in mediation for the last 18 months with no talks currently scheduled and no deadline for a final resolution.

However, Swiderski and Jack Allendorf, E-911 deputy director, said state police are offering a new 800 megahertz radio system on which all within the county can communicate on an as-needed basis similar to the mutual aid the fire departments in different communities offer one another.

If Schererville gets in a car pursuit heading east on U.S. 30 to Merrillville, first responders can use the state radio system so officers in Merrillville and elsewhere in the county can hear what is going on, Allendorf said. 

"If the Lake County sheriff has to go into Schererville to do some work and needs some help, they can switch over to the state system that (Cedar Lake and Schererville are) using so they can talk directly to officers there," he said.

Schererville Town Councilman Mike Troxell said the towns are preparing to buy the equipment needed to connect to the state network. The cost isn't immediately known.

The state ordered all 92 counties to consolidate county, city and town public safety dispatch services no later than 2015.

Crown Point, Dyer, East Chicago, Gary, Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Hobart, Lake Station, Lowell, Munster, Merrillville, New Chicago, St. John and Whiting joined the county’s E-911 network.

Cedar Lake and Schererville rebuffed the invitation and formed Southcom, a separate public safety answering point.

But Southcom doesn’t have a direct link to Lake County’s radio broadcasting network, which has made communications among police, fire and emergency medical service workers difficult.

Lake County officials have said the towns either must join the county system or pay a radio access fee.

The towns have refused, saying their residents already are paying more than their fair share of local income taxes to the county. The two towns also want a share of the $2.3 million in telephone user fees the state recently granted Lake County.

Schererville's Dowling said he hopes the new link will be up and running before the end of the year.