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April 25 2002 Board Meeting A regular scheduled meeting of the Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board was held on Thursday, April 25, 2002, in Room 501 of the County Administration Building, 320 Chestnut Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Chairman Frank Blackley Ed Woodard Andy Atkinson Brian Roberts Steve Smith Sterling Powell (Representing Wrightsville Beach) Jan Kavanaugh (Representing Information Technology) Mike Arkinson (Representing Information Technology) Lise Ruefle (Representing Sheriff’s Department) Donnie Hall Ed Pigford Dan Summers Bill Whisnant Bill Clontz Chairman Frank Blackley called the meeting to order at 9:14 a.m. The summary of the March 28, 2002 meeting was reviewed and approved as submitted. Andy Atkinson moved to approve the March 28, 2002 minutes and Ed Pigford seconded the motion. OLD BUSINESS: Addressing Issues:  Chairman Frank Blackley stated that a standard addressing document needs to be implemented into the CAD system before it is presented to the Board of County Commissioners and an ordinance is drafted. Once implemented it would make addressing new development parcels easier.  The document needs to be a collective effort between the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County.  The Information Technology subcommittee will contact the City of Wilmington regarding their addressing procedures and help establish the guidelines for the document.  The current addressing procedure should be included in the document.  Mike Arkinson contacted two agencies regarding the addressing issue. (An engineering firm and North Carolina State University.)  The Global Programming System (GPS) would be used to collect data.  Information collected from the CAD system would be integrated into the point addressing system.  The standard document should have a penalty clause in its text.  Mike Arkinson distributed a handout explaining and illustrating the four initiatives associated with the CAD System.  The New Hanover Public Safety Communications Center Board has adopted three initiatives. A proposed fourth initiative on implementing a formal error reporting and correction process is currently being drafted and will be presented to the Board for adoption. Wrecker Services:  The area wrecker companies need to be contacted and a meeting arranged to improve the system. Steve Smith stated he would compile a list of the wrecker companies in the area and draft a letter inviting one representative from each of the wrecker companies to attend the meeting.  A system needs to be designed to incorporate the wrecker company information into the CAD system so that it is easily accessible to the telecommunicators when dispatching calls.  The main objective of the Public Safety Communications Center is to have the wrecker companies maintain the service.  The wrecker companies need to use an answering service to dispatch calls.  Abandoned vehicles are still a major concern of the Wilmington Police Department.  Bill Whisnant stated that the City of Wilmington code enforcement officers notify the wrecker companies when they ticket abandoned vehicles. The wrecker companies receive compensation from salvage vehicles.  There should be a separate contract for towing abandoned vehicles.  Acquire and compile a list of the companies that are interested in towing abandoned or junk vehicles and contract the service to an outside agency. The only requirement is that the vehicle be ticketed.  Open the bids up to the salvage yards in Brunswick County and surrounding areas. Do not limit the bids only to the wrecker services.  Ed Pigford, the City of Wilmington purchasing agent. Bill Whisnant, and Steve Smith have agreed to arrange a meeting to discuss the abandoned vehicle issue and report back to the Committee on their findings. Remodeling:  Andy Atkinson stated that staff has met with the architects and engineers regarding the remodeling of the Public Safety Communications Center.  The remodeling may take more than one year to complete.  The relocation of the Emergency Management Department will not take place during hurricane season.  One issue of concern is the size of the generator needed to operate the Public Safety Communication Center during an emergency situation.  Steve Smith stated that he is waiting on quotes from Motorola regarding the telephone and console systems.  Currently, the cost to lease the radio and telephone equipment is $238,000 per year. It is estimated that the total cost will be over $300,000 when finished. Revenue from the 911 surcharge is being used to lease the equipment.  Radios being considered would have a built-in voice log for easy retrieve of information.  Staff would prefer one equipment contract instead of two. Alert Policy:  Dan Summers has reviewed the alert policy and indicated that the procedure has been up-dated.  Invite Coastal Electronics to set up a method to do a Simulcast design on the units that are involved.  Install the alert policy on the telecommunicators’consoles.  An alert would be issued when approaching aircraft was approximately 1,500 miles of landing.  The Wilmington International Airport is responsible for dispatching its emergency personnel first, and then the Public Safety Communications Center receives notification.  The CAD system should be programmed to receive EMS, City and County Fire calls. When an alert is received it would inform personnel of pertinent information.  Donnie Hall stated that under the New Hanover County fire nature codes EMS is listed as a first responder. Steve Smith stated that it is not a problem to monitor each agency on the telecommunicator’s console. It was stated that it would be a good idea to see and be able to locate the different units.  Dan Summers made a suggestion to install or mount a large screen in the Public Safety Communications Center so everyone could view the information as it is occurring. He suggested purchasing the kind of screen he has which is accessible to everyone. The cost of the screen would be approximately $5,000 to purchase.  Chairman Blackley stated that in Gulford County when the telecommunicators dispatch fire personnel they mention which unit was dispatched. That piece of information might help cut down on the radio traffic. It would also utilize the mobile data terminals (MDT’s).  The notes field on the CAD system would be a good place to insert information if there was a multi-agency call in the MDT.  Mike Arkinson asked the question if the telecommunicators were monitoring the calls would they have to type in the information or would OSSI block the information so the information could be automated?  Donnie Hall stated that the OSSI software is programmed that way, but there is a barrier between the agencies that use the CAD system.  Steve Smith stated that there is a switch used to activate the MDT’s that allows each agency to view and monitor their own agencies activity. The MDT allows you to choose the list you want view. It does not allow multi viewing of agencies.  Ed Pigford stated that if you select the switch you are going to see all traffic and notification will appear at the top of the screen that it needs to be cleared.  Donnie Hall stated that the MDT needs to have the ability to break down the information it is obtaining by utilizing the nature codes. Nature Codes:  Chairman Blackley stated that all the fire companies are getting close to finalizing the nature code information. A copy of the fire nature codes was distributed to all Committee members. He is working with Jan Kavanugh on implementing fire dispatching through the CAD system.  A few nature codes were eliminated, but new airport alerts and special items were added.  A separate nature code for all fire alarms was created combining both commercial and residential fire nature codes into one instead of two separate codes.  Ed Pigford stated that if the CAD system could separate the commercial and residential fire alarm calls, it would be easy to determine the amount of time and energy spent on each call during the year.  The CAD database should be able to identify between the two alarms. It would be the agencies responsibility to code it correctly.  The CAD system records certain pieces of information obtained from the nature codes.  The CAD system has the ability to reflect the number of calls taken for one specific nature code.  The nature codes are basically defined in a very granular way and are causing the telecommunicators to look for the right one.  Need to look at the nature codes and redefine. Reprogramming: Dan Summers reported on reprogramming.  Reprogramming at Corning, Inc. has been completed and radios are located at key areas throughout the County. A control station has been established with two portable radios and trained staff. Corning, Inc. also has loaned New Hanover County some infra structure equipment.  The reprogramming for the Schools is complete. There is no interference and the special events channels that had been creating conflicts in the past have been corrected.  The talk group for the schools is now located under the administrators group and is being released for tactical responses.  Currently, Dan Summers is in the process of meeting with the various agencies to help them design templates for reprogramming.  It was stated that the City of Wilmington needs to roll over any money left in the current fiscal year budget to next year’s fiscal budget to fund the reprogramming radios used by the City of Wilmington.  Wrightsville Beach will be be reprogrammed with the City of Wilmington Police and Fire Departments. It will be approximately July before that reprogramming is complete. NEW BUSINESS: Bill Clontz reported on the Information Technology subcommittee.  The zones need to be redefined by using the address ranges. Jan Kavanaugh, Information Technology staff member, has been assigned the task and will meet with the agencies involved including the City of Wilmington staff. She has received information from Tom Hilton on the different CAD layers and once she has reviewed the information she will relate the information to the agencies. It was stated that improvement of the CAD layers is needed.  Dan Summers stated that a large amount of hazardous material information is collected through the CAD system and it would be a good idea to establish a link to each of the 119 facilities in the area that store hazardous materials.  It was stated that certain software could be used to establish the link and access the information into the GHR database. Another option would be to convert the current addressing system (proportional) to a point addressing system with the assistance of various engineering firms.  It was stated that the resource monitor is not being utilized, as it was intended to be used. Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s):  Jan Kavanaugh is updating the MDT information. She is working on a procedure to create a CD for each of the agencies.  There is an approximately one year of warranty left on the hardware from Panasonic. Extra MDT’s have been purchased and and distributed.  The Town of Wrightsville Beach is having radio signal problems. It was suggested that the problem may be caused by too high wattage or the way the modem software is arranged. By changing the settings on the modem, the channels will be changed and the signal will be strengthen. Also, the antenna may need to be removed since Wrightsville Beach is located right in the middle of two towers (New Hanover County and Topsoil). Coastal Electronic needs to be contacted to do some testing in the area.  The radio signal will go to the first tower based on parameters and will locate the signal if it is not locked up.  Ed Pigford stated he would go to Wrightsville Beach and evaluate where the parameters need to be located. He noted that the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department is set up differently from the City of Wilmington Police Department. The City of Wilmington Police Department has a good set of parameters. Public Safety Communications Center Proposed Budget:  Steve Smith distributed a break down of the Public Safety Communications Centers proposed budget for FY02-03.  The Public Safety Communications Center became a County department at the beginning of the FY01-02 budget year and is no longer part of the Sheriff’s Department.  A spreadsheet is being utilized to keep track of overtime and salaries.  Attendance has improved and the telecommunicates have a better understanding of how important it is to be at work when scheduled.  Dan Summers stated that the trunking equipment is in his budget under line item 4210.  Two new hires will be starting in the Public Safety Communications Center on Monday, May 6, 2002. One full-time employee will be retiring the end of May. He will work part-time in the Center.  Steve Smith stated that he is trying different ways to keep and motivate the employees. Some options are working two eight hour shifts, working with the employees to give them some flexibility, involving them more in the IT end of the Center, and moving the administrative calls out of the dispatchers area.  Encourage them to visit other centers OSSI Users Conference:  The conference is designed to discuss and target issues that the different agencies are experiencing by using the OSSI software. New product reviews and ideas will be presented and users will gain new knowledge of the software.  The OSSI software products that CAD is using are designed for smaller centers. New Hanover County is the only county in the State that is using the CAD system in conjunction with the mapping feature.  Need to look at the microwave link the same way the XY coordinates were reviewed. An amount of $179,000 is budgeted for the microwave links for the Simulcast. Andy Atkinson stated that New Hanover County could lease lease the links and use the 911 surcharge money to offset the cost. The recommended budget for FY02-03 will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners on Monday, May 20, 2002.  Bill Clontz stated that the CAD system needs to be upgraded from FOXPRO to MICROSOFT SQL. According to OSSI the MICROSOFT SQL upgrades will be delayed until the end of the year or the beginning of January 2003.  It was stated that when OSSI dials in and does backup on the files it cost New Hanover County approximately $1,000 per SQL server.  Ed Pigford wanted to know if the Wilmington Police Department could have an update on the message box. Jan Cavanaugh will find out the answer for him. It could be installed through the OSSI software that would connect the CAD system with the radio system.  Steve Smith stated that the Information Technology Department is establishing a monthly schedule to re-boot the CAD system. The next re-boot will be held in June. Dan Summers invited the Committee to tour the tower site at the Flemington site. The next scheduled meeting will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2002, at 9:00 a.m. Room 501 of the County Administration Building, 320 Chestnut Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. Donnie Hall motioned to close the meeting. Bill Whisnant seconded the motion. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m.