E-911 board looks at software, equipment needs for Phase II and beyond

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

GIS Coordinator Joe Mattingly, center, talks about mapping updates he has received while Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin, left, and County Attorney John Kelley, right, listen. Click to enlarge.

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, 11:59 p.m.  – With a firmer grasp on the costs required to make the county’s 911 dispatch center Phase II compliant, it appears the board will not need to spend the full $250,000 line of credit from Nelson Fiscal Court.

Adding up the total expenditures to date, EMS director Joe Prewitt said the total was just over $165,000. That total includes the bid the board approved Wednesday for ugrades to its computer-aided dispatch system.

The only bidder was Spillman Technologies, with a bid of $66,326. Of that amount, $24,476 was for the server hardware; much of the rest is for training necessary to use the new system, Dispatch Director Debbie Carter told the board.

The board also discussed the cost of training and certifying dispatch employees, including part-time workers. EMS director Joe Prewitt recommended the board require some sort of agreement with workers so that if money is spent on their training that they agree in writing to a certain length of service to the center or they will be asked to reimburse the training costs.

Prewitt said EMS uses a similar agreement, and will provide a copy for the board to look at.

RADIO SYSTEM UPGRADES. RCS of Louisville provided the board with a computer-based propagation study that involved a communications system that used fivs repeater sites across the county based on existing structures, including water tanks and antenna towers.

From left, Fourth District Magistrate Jeff Lear and board members Fred Dewitt, New Haven fire chief and Anthony Mattingly, Bardstown Fire chief, listen to discussion regarding dispatch upgrade software. Click to enlarge.

Public service agencies across the country are facing a Jan. 1, 2013, deadline to shift their existing wideband radio systems to narrowband systems.

The RCS study states that the five-site communications system will give handheld radio coverage of 93 percent of the county – a figure that Fred Dewitt, chief of the New Haven Fire Department, didn’t believe could be achieved.

Fire trucks with mobile radios have trouble talking back to Bardstown in southern parts of the county, he said.

The RCS study estimated a total cost of $772,948 – which Prewitt noted was lower than an earlier bid of $850,000.

“It’s an unfounded mandate,” Prewitt told the board. The FCC mandate has stayed out-of-sight and out-of-mind, he said. “We’re at the point where it has to be in-sight and on our minds.”

Not all of the radios used by city and county agencies will need to be replaced, Prewitt said. Most of the radios purchased in the past five or six years are narrowband P25 compatible, which means they can be used legally after the Jan. 1, 2012, deadline.

The communications system proposed by RCS uses five sites around the county, all of which will be linked by microwave with one another.

A radio at each site known as a “repeater” listens for weak signals from mobile and handheld radios on one frequency and retransmits those signals on another frequency at a higher power, giving them much greater range. The proposed communications system allows simulcasting, which means the use of the entire system at one time. Currently, the repeaters in the county operate independently of one another.

Repeater technology isn’t new to the county, but the new system promises to significantly improve radio coverage between dispatch and agencies by giving seamless coverage with fewer dead spots, Prewitt said.

In other action, the board:

• Discussed the letters of intent to wireless carriers regarding the five-county region’s desire to work together on Phase II compliance.
• Heard GIS Coordinator Joe Mattingly report he was beginning to get the data needed to improve the mapping capabilities, including property line information and eventually, property owner information.
• Voted to direct Carter to renew six FCC licenses in order to meet the Jan. 1, 2012 requirement that public service agencies have narrowband licenses in place.
• Heard Carter express her frustration with the slow response she’s received from the City of Bardstown regarding T-1 lines. She also expressed frustration that city admininstrators were less than responsive to her queries regarding an upgrade to her Sprint phone plan, which is provided by the City of Bardstown.

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