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October 27, 2011 Board Meeting DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND 911 COMMUNICATIONS 230 Government Center Drive, Suite 115 Wilmington, North Carolina 28403 Telephone (910) 798-6920 Fax (910) 798-6925 wlee@nhcgov.com Warren Lee Director Memorandum To: Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board Members From: Warren Lee, Director Subject: October 27, 2011 Board Summary Date: November 22, 2011 A Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board meeting was held on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 10:00 AM in the Emergency Operation Center, 220 Government Center Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Frank Blackley Leslie Chaney Sterling Powell Harold Heglar Andre’ Mallette Kurt Bartley Donnie Hall Dennis Cooper Mike Core William Younginer Sharon Vincent Rick O’Donnell Sharon Braxton Jon Rorie Jerry Brewer Warren Lee Guests Mary Smith,Wilmington PD Jason Adams, Motorola Wireless Mike Cavaluzzi, Motorola Kristin Mears, Motorola Wayne Pearce, NHC Emergency Management Bob Hamlin, Federal Engineering Chairman Blackley called the meeting to order at 10:04 a.m. Chairman Blackley asked if everyone had a chance to review the minutes from September 1, 2011 and if there were any questions, comments, changes or corrections. There were none. Chairman Blackley asked if there was a motion to approve. Sterling Powell made a motion and Warren Lee seconded. All in favor; none opposed. Motion passed. OLD BUSINESS: City and County Fire AVL Chairman Blackley stated that City Fire AVL is up and running. Warren asked how AVL was working for Wilmington Police. Mary Smith stated that they still had the same issues; when there are updates it wipes the configuration and they have to retouch all the machines. Sharon Braxton is working to resolve the issues. NEW BUSINESS UHF/VHF Narrowbanding Survey Chairman Blackley asked if Bob Hamlin could discuss the survey Federal Engineering conducted on the paging and mutual aid systems. Bob Hamlin passed out the Radio Systems Narrowband Review. By January 1, 2013 all frequencies have to be narrowbanded. They completed an inventory list and recommendations. If anyone wants a copy of the inventory, get him your email address and he will be glad to send a copy. New Hanover County currently has equipment that cannot be narrowbanded which has to be replaced or removed from the system by January 1, 2013. There are 352 pagers in the county of which 247 can be narrowbanded. There are 105 that cannot be narrowbanded. County Fire has a backup paging base station at Ogden; they are unsure if it is narrowband capable since they could not find a model or serial number. Kure Beach Fire has a Midland base station and mobiles that are not narrowband capable. Wrightsville Beach Fire has two Midland and one Icon mobiles that are not narrowband capable. Budget estimates are included in the attachment from Federal Engineering. The VHF licenses held by the County have had the narrowband emission designator added. There could be licenses held by separate local departments that need to be updated. Contact Federal Engineering and they could do this for you. Federal Engineering is recommending one of the two simulcast paging systems be abandoned since one is more than capable of handling 352 pagers. The remaining base stations can be reconfigured reconfigured to get better coverage. Narrowbanding the system is not going to change coverage on the streets but coverage in buildings will diminish. The coverage from 230 Government Center Drive and south will be the affected area. Motorola can do a survey to see if coverage can be increased by other means such as another base station. Warren asked if changing the antenna at Seabreeze would help. Jason Adams stated that it is omni-directional now and you would most likely not want to change that but if there was a location between here and Seabreeze that an antenna could be added would increase the coverage. Bob said that an intermediate antenna or even changing the existing antenna could increase the coverage. Jon Rorie asked if there was still a repeater at Carolina Beach and if it has been maintained. Warren stated that he believed it had been removed with the radio system upgrade which Jason corrected that it was not removed but that it was turned off. Bob stated that the coverage on the beach was good; just the area between here and Carolina Beach that was going to be diminished. Bob Hamlin said that Robert Llora has stated that he will look into the optimal location for either a base station or antenna for increased coverage and give a recommendation. Warren asked how critical is the paging system; is it a necessity or just something nice to have. Jon Rorie stated that it was critical for them on the beaches because of how they tone out. Sterling Powell agreed it was critical for Wrightsville Beach as well. County Fire said that it is for the Myrtle Grove area. Warren asked if they added an antenna how high would it have to be. Jason said that he thought a 100’ antenna would be sufficient. Bob stated that eliminating one simulcast paging system you would have an antenna and transmitter that you can use. You would just need connectivity. Warren said this would be what Robert would be able to answer and assist with our options. There was a discussion as to whether the Myrtle Grove Library had fiber or not; no one knew. Mary Smith stated that UNC-W had a Marine Science building in Myrtle Grove area; that might be a location option. They do not have a tower there but Mike Cavaluzzi stated they have plans for the location and they included a 100’ tower. This has been discussed for a while and also might be one of our options. Warren stated when they started the narrowbanding project, they budgeted for the cost of the survey but not to do the recommended changes as there was not a way to project what might need to be done. The next budget year will have the request for the items recommended for the agencies to meet the January 1, 2013 deadline. Chairman Blackley asked if there was any other new business; no one had any. OTHER ITEMS AND REPORTS Communications Policy Chairman Blackley stated that they have Communications Policy completed and it has been sent to the City Manager for approval. 9-1-1 Center Chairman Blackley asked Warren Lee to update everyone on the 911 Center. Warren informed everyone that they are completing the training for the last round of people hired. They are all training as call takers. Warren also stated the contract is in place and waiting on AT&T for delivery information on an Automatic Call Distribution system. The ACD is a system that routes the calls through to a console that is available. There should not be an impact on anyone in the field. The goal is that the call takers available will be answering phones as they can but if they are busy, calls will be routed to consoles able to answer the calls. Hopefully this will improve productivity and be a positive change. Chairman Blackley asked if there was anything else. Mary Smith asked about the 10-3 alerts and the police department was interested in getting some information on the alerts and who should they talk to about it. Warren said that if that is something they wanted to do he would talk to Wireless about it and make it happen. Mary stated they were just interested in getting some information right now. Jason stated that if they wanted it, all it required was him to turn it on. Sharon Vincent said that if she got the go ahead to do the 10-3 alerts she would let Jason know. Warren stated the Sheriff’s Office started the 10-3 alerts that go off about every ten seconds so that when they needed silence, units not involved with the surveillance or needed to use the radio, the tones went off to warn them they were in 10-3 status. Jerry Brewer stated that it works well for them. The tones going off during a building search are less intrusive than someone’s voice coming across the radio at the wrong time. Chairman Blackley asked if there was anything further. No one had anything else. Chairman Blackley adjourned at 10:27 a.m.