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05 24 2007 Board Meeting NEW HANOVER COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS CENTER 230 Government Center Dr, Suite 185 Wilmington, NC 28403 Phone: (910) 798-6920 Fax: (910) 798-6925 E-mail: llancaster@nhcgov.com Steve Smith Director Memorandum To: Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board Members From: Steve Smith, Director Subject: May 24, 2007 Board Summary Date: May 30, 2007 A Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board meeting was held on Thursday, May 24, 2007 in the Emergency Operating Center, 220 Government Center Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Chairman Sterling Powell Duane Ward, Excused Andre’ Mallette Sgt. Macneish, Excused Brenda Hewlett Larry Bergman, Excused Ron Jordan Brian Roberts, Excused Billy Younginer Steve Smith, Excused Cliff Robinson Dennis Cooper, Excused Warren Lee Michael Clemmons, Excused Donnie Hall Leslie Stanfield, Excused Jan Kavanaugh, Excused Robert Matheson, Excused James Conway, Excused GUESTS: Bill Fink, New Hanover County IT Department Jason Adams, Wireless Comm Michael Core, Wrightsville Beach Police Department Teresa Fountain, Wrightsville Beach Police Department Charles G Smith, Carolina Beach Police Department Cynthia Deacon, UNC-W Chairman Powell called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m. Chairman Powell noted that there were not six members present for a majority. Chairman Powell asked if the were any questions regarding the April 26, 2007 minutes. No one had any comments. OLD BUSINESS: 800 MHz System Warren Lee stated that Jason with was here with the update. The new P25 is functional for Fire, Sheriff, EMS and Pleasure Island. UCALL and VCALL will be put into tower this weekend. This requires a card to tie into the alarm system. The Flemington generator has been connected and is working. All Flemington needs is connection to Motorola. Chairman Powell asked if the hard patches are in and Jason informed him that they were not but they can be done for County Fire, Sheriff, EMS, MED Tac I & II and Pleasure Island Law Enforcement. Anything else will have to be set up on an as needed basis. Setting them up is really simple, basically a couple of mouse clicks. Warren wanted to discuss issues with the templates. There is a learning curve on programming the radios and people start using them that there are things they would like modified or do differently. Training a few weeks ago with Motorola went very well. The training was to explain the functionality of radios. The radios have standard setup for the buttons. Fire templates have had a request to maintain the tactical channels for the Fire Service. Tac 2 through 10 will be migrated to the new system and Jason will be working on getting them in shortly. Agencies are developing templates and creating announcement talk groups or multi groups. This is creating a problem. Any talk group can only belong to one announcement talk group. Example: Pleasure Island Law Enforcement created an all talk group, consisting of Pleasure Island Law, Primary, Secondary, CID and Operations. Once any of those talk groups are associated with an all talk group they can not belong to another all talk group. Warren stated that they are creating a County Fire all talk group which consists of the dispatch channel and the even number TAC channels. If Wilmington wants an all talk group it would consist of the Wilmington dispatch and the odd number TAC channels this way they would be assured of reaching anyone who is on scene of that fire. Ron Jordan asked if anyone on a mutual scene would have to use both ATGs to get both departments. Warren informed him that this could be done on the console level with the dispatcher. The dispatcher would bridge two ATGs together, multi-select 2 ATGs. Chairman Powell asked if Wilmington was working mutual aid with Wrightsville Beach on Tac II and went to all talk could they get it. Warren replied if it was patched, the console would bridge both the ATGs. When you need to use it ask that it be patched, not at the onset of each incident. Chairman Powell asked if it was set up so that the all talk groups were best left in the console not on in individual radios. Warren informed him that at the chief officer level there was interest in keeping it but not on every radio and the dispatch. Warren asked if Chairman Powell wanted only senior officers and dispatchers to have access to all talk channels or did he have a preference. Chairman Powell stated that he was comfortable with all talk residing with dispatch. If If someone gets on scene and starts tying up all the resources it seems that it would be fraught with peril. Ron Jordan stated that it could start out with dispatchers only and if anything changed down the road you could add the chiefs. Warren stated that if you were the incident commander you would want to reach all the people immediately, that is one reason to give the senior officer access to all talk. Chairman Powell said that is fine; leave it at the chief’s discretion who is to have access to all talk. Ron Jordan asked about interoperability between the 800 system and other agencies and if there was a simple equation where to go if he wanted to talk to someone, which template explained. Warren informed him to request dispatch to patch to that agency. Warren stated that you will not be tied to getting a radio reprogrammed one time. Once it is programmed you may find that is not what you want and that can be changed. Chairman Powell spoke about EMS just getting in about 30 radios and some analog stuff is going to be given for Ocean Rescue to bring them over to the 800 system within a couple of weeks. Then they will start to replace them with digital. Warren spoke about Kure Beach pushing for this Memorial Day weekend, being concerned about the lifeguards not having radios and wanted to pass out the radios from the old system so that they have contact with them (lifeguards). Donnie Hall asked if anyone has tried the status message or is familiar with it and Jason responded that he was familiar with it, that it is in Wake County and dealt with it there but not here. Donnie wanted to get more familiar with the features of the status message and wanted to know if someone else had done any research on the features. Jason told everyone that it is a deck box with 8 buttons on it and those buttons could be programmed for anything such as en-route or at scene. When the en-route button was pushed the event viewer window on the console would show that and when the on scene button was pushed it updated the console. The big benefit of the status message is that it cut down on talking time. There is no voice interface until the agency needed to report something. Not only does it interface with the radio but also through CAD. Chairman Powell stated the only downside is that someone who has a radio doesn’t know that the ambulance is on the way or that the truck is coming since there is not any voice transmission. Jason informed everyone that the buttons could be programmed for anything needed, not just for en-route or on scene. Warren said that those two were the most typical use of the status message. Chairman Powell inquired about the cost to have the buttons programmed and Donnie stated that according to Robert (Llora) that on certain mobiles you could have buttons preset, that there were no additional fees or software required. Jason believed that you would have to request the radios status message capable when ordering radios. Chairman Powell noted that we did not make the quorum so the minutes had not been approved. NEW BUSINESS: Public Safety Communications Center: Brenda Hewlett distributed the monthly agency reports to Committee members, the new tape requests and gave an update on the happenings in the Center. 􀁸 A new employee has gone through the training and now has resigned and another gave notice to resign next week. 􀁸 One problem occurring is with the MDTs. Pulling up someone else’s call creates a mess, rather than pulling up their call. They look at the wrong call and causes havoc with the MDTs. 􀁸 Using the buttons doesn’t not eliminate informing dispatch of arrival so that when tapes and records are requested these will not be recorded. 􀁸 If MDTs should go down after midnight, no one will be in until 7am to repair them. It is not an emergency situation and it will be done when they get in at 7am. 􀁸 When using the new tape request forms please be specific with as much as information that you have to make finding the traffic you are looking for. Warren asked if it was available online but it is not and Lynn will get one out to every member attached with the minutes. General Ron Jordan wanted to go back to the buttons for the status message what else do they do. Warren responded that anything that you wanted them to do. The buttons can be for any function, such as en-route, on scene, in service, return to station, whatever you would like for user transmission. This is just an option. Chairman Powell and Warren both believe that agencies still need to stay verbal. Warren reminded everyone that the Proposed By Law changes be presented to the County Commissioners on June 4, 2007 here in the Emergency Management Center. Chairman Powell asked to remind all board members of the importance of attending PSCC Board meetings and if unable to attend please send an alternate. Any person a board member designates can serve as alternate if the secretary or chairman is notified by e-mail of their attendance prior to the meeting. Alternates can vote in place of regular members. Chairman Powell adjourned the meeting at 10:41a.m.