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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJanuary 22 2004 Board Meeting A regularly scheduled Public Safety Communications Policy Board meeting was held on Thursday, January 22, 2004 in the large conference room at the County Annex Building, 230 Marketplace Mall, Wilmington, North Carolina. Members Present: Members Absent Chairman Blackley Robbie Matheson, Excused Dave Weaver Brian Roberts Steve Smith Dennis Cooper Donnie Hall Lt. William Hoehlein Warren Lee Sterling Powell Sgt. Ed Gibson Mary Ann Hinshaw, Representing the City of Wilmington Scott Goodyear, Representing EMS Jan Kavanaugh, Representing New Hanover County Information Technology Guests: Max Maxwell, New Hanover County Engineering Vic Rule, New Hanover County Public Safety Communications Center Brenda Hewlett, New Hanover County Public Safety Communications Center Susan Rossiter, New Hanover County Public Safety Communications Center Chairman Blackley called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. The summary from the November 20, 2003 meeting was reviewed and one correction was noted. It is as following: Under Grants on on page two, sixth bullet, it should read the state of North Carolina will receive $42 million in funding, part of that amount is scheduled for New Hanover County, not the entire amount. A motion was made by Chairman Blackley to accept the summary with the noted correction, Donnie Hall seconded the motion. The motion passed. Chairman Blackley introduced Mary Ann Hinshaw, City of Wilmington Deputy Manager. Ms Hinshaw will replace Doug Hewett on the New Hanover County Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board. 2 OLD BUSINESS: New Emergency Operating Center and Public Safety Communications Center Building: Max Maxwell, New Hanover County Engineer, gave a presentation on the new Emergency Operating Center (EOC) and Public Safety Communications Center (Center) building. 􀂾 A 200-foot communications tower will be constructed in the back of the building. 􀂾 A microwave link will be installed on the tower to connect the facility to downtown. 􀂾 The new EOC and Center will be a stand-alone building with a breezeway connecting the existing building to the new building and will meet all specific building requirements. 􀂾 Two outside accesses to the building will be secured and employees will use the County card swipe system to gain access into the facility. No non-authorized clientele will be allowed in the area. 􀂾 The building will be elevated two feet for insurance purposes and a handicap ramp will be installed. 􀂾 The EOC will be one large room with several breakout rooms for representative of the City of Wilmington, Wrightsville Beach, and New Hanover County. 􀂾 A communication pod will house the other agencies needed during an emergency. 􀂾 The entire building will be on backup generator power. 􀂾 The County is working on looking into the possibility of having a PBX based phone system in the Center. 􀂾 The FY04-05 requested budget for the Center will have an entry to replace the desktop and CPU for the CAD system. The current equipment has been in the Center since 1999. 􀂾 A location for a backup center will need to be addressed. 􀂾 Natural barriers in the form of large planters have been included in the blueprints. 􀂾 If a heightened level of security is needed, controlled access to the parking lot will be implemented. 􀂾 Approximately 545 spaces could be utilized for a staging area if necessary. 􀂾 Completion date is scheduled for the first quarter of 2005. 800 MHz Update: Warren Lee reported on the 800 MHz project. 􀂾 There is a possibility that New Hanover County could install their equipment at the U. S. Coast Guard Loran Station site located on River Road. 􀂾 A structural tower study will need to be done to see if the extra equipment will impact the building. 􀂾 The Seabreeze tower site would be elimated if the U. S. Coast Guard Loran Station was utilized. 3 􀂾 It was noted that Wrightsville Beach Police Department received approval to apply for a grant to buy 800 MHz radios. If the grant is approved, they may be migrating to our system in the near future. 􀂾 Staff met with the University of North Carolina at Wilmington ( UNC-W) and Coastal Electronics to discuss the repeater that UNC-W purchased several years ago to provide better campus coverage. 􀂾 It was suggested that UNC-W wait and install their equipment on the new tower at the annex. This would not only benefit the university, but it would also provide better coverage at the northern end of the County. Radio Licenses Renewals: 􀂾 Emergency Management is the process of renewing radio licenses that have expired. 􀂾 Communications Specialists contacted Warren Lee in reference for them to install the two EMS frequency repeaters at the Flemington tower site. The repeaters are part of the state wide mid channel system. 􀂾 The Policy Board had approved the request with the stipulation that the State use Coastal Electronics as the vendor at the installation site. Coastal Electronics has an annual maintenance agreement with the County to do work on that tower site and should be the vendor to install the repeaters. 􀂾 The installation costs will be absorbed by the State. 􀂾 Dave Weaver made a motion to have Warren Lee contact the State EMS office and advise them that Coastal Electronics is our sole source vendor for that tower site and that if Communications Specialist is going to do any work they would have to coordinate it with Coastal Electronics. Mr. Lee would prefer for Coastal Electronics to do the actually installation of the equipment on the tower. 􀂾 Donnie Hall seconded the motion 􀂾 The motion passed. Grant Update: Warren Lee reported on the grant progress. 􀂾 The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the $493,000 grant, which is the second part of the fiscal year 2003 of the Homeland Security funding, was received and the paperwork has been returned to Raleigh. 􀂾 The State has approved $132,000 for New Hanover County to purchase 699 millennium filter cartridge respiratory masks. 􀂾 A formal bid will be required since the amount of funding is over $90,000. The Finance Department is currently working on preparing the bids and will send out the bid packages to the vendors. 􀂾 Currently, the lowest bid received so far is $189 per mask. The highest bid is for $277 per mask. 􀂾 The majority of the masks will be delivered to the Wilmington City Police Department, New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office and EMS. 4 Haz Mat Transportation Grant: 􀂾 Emergency Management did receive the Haz Mat Transportation Grant for $5,000. 􀂾 The funding will be used by the local emergency planning committee to do a commodity survey of highway traffic. 􀂾 The main focus will be on tractor-trailers and their contents. Reprogramming of 800 MHz: Ed Gibson reported on the reprogramming of 800 MHz. 􀂾 He will set up a meeting with all the involved agencies and report back to the Committee at the February board meeting. Fire and Nature Codes: Chairman Blackley reported on the fire and nature codes. 􀂾 Representatives from the Center, and New Hanover County Information Technology discussed the fire and nature codes. 􀂾 It was noted that information is available which is very similar to the EMD protocols. 􀂾 Contact was made with the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch to receive a demonstration package of the different natures codes they have available. 􀂾 A second meeting will be arranged and contact with the vendor will be made to set up a demonstration and find out more information about the product. 􀂾 Jan Kavanaugh will put in an enhancement request to OSSI to have them organize the current set of nature codes used by fire, law enforcement and EMS. 􀂾 Currently New Hanover County has 220 nature codes. NEW BUSINESS: Information Technology (IT) Sub-Committee Report: Jan Kavanaugh reported on Information Technology Sub-Committee. 􀂾 Leslie Stansfield is the new Information Technology Director for the County and will assume her new responsibilies on February 17, 2004. 􀂾 The Center is still having individual lock ups on the workstations. 􀂾 There are two types of “hangs” being experienced by the Center. 􀂾 One of the “hangs” is based on a “bug” that has been recorded by another Microsoft client in squeal. It is caused by the read ahead that locks everybody else out which causing the long delay in the console. 􀂾 The next service pack released by OSSI should address the issue; no issue date has been set for the release. 5 􀂾 The other type of “hang” the telecommunicators have been experiencing is based on the result of the file shares that have been set up. 􀂾 IT is currently experimenting with the file shares to see if they can correct the problem. 􀂾 A big improvement was noticed when the sever equipment was replaced. 􀂾 Files in the point addressing project have been loaded and the program is working well. 􀂾 Discussions with Mike Arkinson, New Hanover County GIS, continue on how to generate and access the MSAG either on line or electronically. If this can be accomplished the Center would no longer have to maintain and upkeep the MSAG. 􀂾 A router was installed on the CAD server at the Center that will enable the CAD server to synchronize to the Motorola timeserver. This should eliminate the time-synchronized problems that the Center is experiencing. 􀂾 The PC’s are not synchronized to CAD, so problems may still occur. Phase II Wireless Compliance: 􀂾 Currently, there are six vendors in the County, only five are operational. Cingular is the only non-operational vendor. Failsoft Procedures: Donnie Hall reported on, distributed copies and gave a brief presentation on the Failsoft procedure. 􀂾 In July of 2003, a presentation was made to the Policy Board based on the findings and studies that the Contingency Sub-Committee had been working on, but since there was no quorum to make an official adoption of the Failsoft procedures that were identified by the committee for the Center to implement, it was tabled for another meeting. 􀂾 The telecommunicators and end users need to be educated on the procedures associated with Failsoft. 􀂾 It was suggested that a general training policy be established and a Failsoft drill be scheduled. 􀂾 Committee members were asked to review the handout and be prepared to discuss the information at the next meeting. VHF Signal Coverage: 􀂾 New Hanover County Fire Services is having a problem with the VHF pagers. 􀂾 The VHF pagers are frequency receivers that receive tones generated from the Center to activate pagers and announce an emergency to the volunteer firemen and women. 􀂾 Many of the volunteers that live in the northern part of the County are not receiving notification and therefore; are not responding to emergency situations. 6 􀂾 Contact has been made with the vendor that maintains the transmission tower site on River Road and all equipment is functioning properly. 􀂾 Old pagers have been replaced with newer models, but the problem still exists. 􀂾 It was also noted that the spectrum of frequencies is more crowded these days and that could hinder some of the penetration that used to be available. 􀂾 It was recommended that when Emergency Management and the Center relocate to the annex and the 200-foot tower is constructed that funding be included for transmitters for the VHF frequencies to increase signal strength. River Road Transmitter: 􀂾 The River Road tower is 250 feet. 􀂾 It was recommended to leave the transmitter at the River Road tower site and put an additional transmitter at the annex. 􀂾 Four transmitters would be needed, one or two for primary, one for EMS, one for fire, and one for back-up. 􀂾 The cost is approximately $1,500 per transmitter. 􀂾 The use of private companies to provide services is not allowable and and does not meet the criteria of insurance rating agencies. Public Safety Communications Center: Steve Smith gave a report on the Public Safety Communications Center. Accreditation: 􀂾 Mr. Smith is looking into the possibility of getting the Center accredited. He has spoken with a vendor that handles accreditations for law enforcement and telecommunicator organizations. 􀂾 Mr. Smith knows of several agencies that have become accredited and will contact them for more information. PSAP Report: Steve Smith distributed a PSAP Overview Report to Committee members. Please refer to the handout for detailed information. License Plate: 􀂾 An individual in the public safety community has listed on his private license plate “QQQ”. 􀂾 Hitting three rapid QQQ’s activates the alert tone on the MDT’s. This particular individual has received MDT training and is aware of what happens when the “QQQ” is entered. 􀂾 Both the Department of Motor Vehicles and OSSI have been notified about the issue. 7 􀂾 Jan Kavanaugh will check with OSSI to see if they have come up with a resolution. EMS: Scott Goodyear reported on EMS issues. 􀂾 Information pertaining to the orange “Man Down” button on the portable and mobile radios was discussed. 􀂾 There should be a universal code in the system to notify personnel when the button is activated to let them know exactly what is going on. 􀂾 It was stated that all the users get together and try to establish one set signal that could be used as a universal code. 􀂾 EMS is also in the process of updating their radio list to correspond with the other agencies radio lists. The next scheduled meeting will be held on Thursday, February 26, 2004 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 501 of the New Hanover County Administration Building, 320 Chestnut Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. Sgt. Ed Gibson made a motion to adjourn. Donnie Hall seconded the motion. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:37 a.m.