PRESENT: B. Blanchard, M. Lane, T. Joseph, P. Penniman

EXCUSED: C. Evans

STAFF: B. Benjamin, Deputy County Administrator; J. Hanson, Planning Commissioner; J. Wood, Deputy County Attorney; W. Skinner, Public Information Coordinator

GUESTS: R. Seely, Tompkins County Resident, L. Withiam, E911 Operations Committee Chair; D. Kiefer, Board of Representatives; B. Wilbur, Ithaca City Fire Chief; K. Lansing, Village of Cayuga Heights Police Chief; P. Meskill, Tompkins County Sheriff

CALL TO ORDER

        The meeting opened at 12:03 p.m.

ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS TO THE AGENDA

        Report on Site Optioning Process

ANNOUNCEMENTS

        Ms. Blanchard reported that Mr. James King, Communications Coordinator in Clinton County will be meeting with Tompkins County officials April 27, 2000, 5:00 p.m. at the Crash, Fire, Rescue Building. Mr. King will be talking about his experiences using the 800 MHz system. She stated the Village of Dryden and Town Supervisors have also been invited to attend.

        Mr. Lane stated a meeting has not yet been held between the County and the Town of Dryden because the Town has asked for information regarding the soil capabilities at the Hanshaw Road site and also what the cost would be to do a smaller district, or a out-of-district user for the DOT facility. He stated that the County is awaiting soil study results from TG Millers and County Engineering and once received a meeting will be scheduled.

        Mr. Lane reported the Dryden Town Board met last week and at that meeting they adopted a resolution to form a intermunicipal committee that was charged with dealing with various town issues relating to other municipalities. The Board also adopted two additional resolutions, one appointing the Town Supervisor and Councilman Hatfield to serve on that committee, and the other resolution directed the committee to immediately look at the issue of the joint DOT Project and the soil issue. He stated he expects a meeting will be held with County and Cornell officials following that groups work.

        Ms. Blanchard asked when the soil tests and work by TG Millers will be complete. Mr. Hanson stated the soil tests were ordered April 20, 2000, and he will check on the status of them. The work with TG Millers is in the process and once complete a meeting will be held with the Town of Dryden Subcommittee.

BUILDING COMMITTEE, E911

        Ms. Blanchard deferred this report to the May committee meeting.

TOWERS WORKING GROUP REPORT

        Mr. Joseph stated a meeting was held last week and some of the misconceptions that have emerged around the project such as tower height issues and the 95 percent coverage issue were clarified. He stated there have been many questions about tower heights and he believes the impression that has been given it that this issue has been studied and 180 feet is the right height. He stated this is not the case, the locations are not exact and have been sited only for the propagation study. It is possible that the heights may be raised or lowered if sites are moved and there also may be characteristics of equipment that require different heights. He reported the microwave connection between towers is the most important and if one tower is changed, it may have impacts on the remaining towers. He stated it is necessary to provide more complete answers to questions received in the community and also provide the implications of each possible action. He stated the Request for Proposals needs to be completed and precise locations determined. At this point it is too soon to discuss tower heights. He noted in the RFP there can be a performance standard that companies are held to and if they can provide shorter towers that meet these standards this would be a bonus. He stated there has been a lot of discussion so far that has implied the plans for this project are further along than they actually are.

        Mr. Lane asked if the County co-locates with a cellular provider, if 20 additional feet is required to be added for each entity on the tower. Mr. Joseph stated there has to be 20 feet of separation between antennas, but this does not necessarily mean an additional 20 feet to the tower height. He stated the RFP will be for the County system to meet the County's needs, and will also require that all towers be extendable.

        Mr. Joseph stated that another clarification that needs to be made surrounds the 95 percent coverage area. He stated that the industry standard was set by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and it isn't clear that a system can even be built that provides less coverage. He stated this means that the vendor will guarantee that 95 percent of the area will be covered 95 percent of the time, but people need to understand that this is not a precise measure, and the signal can be affected by weather, sun spots, other radio interference, leaves on trees, angles of roofs, etc. Testing is the way the percentage is measured and the test must show 95 percent success and to achieve this the system is built to exceed the standard to account for interference.

        Ms. Blanchard stated the APCO standard was originally established at 75 percent many years ago, but this was recently increased by a national public safety consortium and has been adopted by APCO as the new standard.

        Mr. Joseph stated that the site selection team has begun their work. The group includes himself, Jonathon Wood, Jim Kazda, Jim Hanson, Lee Shurtleff, Jack Miller, and Dave Stevenson. The group is looking at sites to see if they are suitable for building and environmentally optimal so other sites won't need to be used in the future. He stated the group also had a discussion about the purchase of radios and the original proposal was to have the County pay 50 percent for portable radios, 100 percent for mobile radios in fire vehicles, and 100 percent for mobile data terminals in all police vehicles. He stated that Sheriff Meskill presented a strong case about why mobile radios are needed by police agencies and how they are used and noted the Committee did not arrive at any conclusion on this issue.

        Mr. Lane reported on a conversation he had with a constituent about the mobile data terminal and the possibility of this system going down. He (the constituent) stated that recently the system was out of service for three days. He also spoke about the need for three keystrokes on the keypad to call for help. Mr. Miller stated that the information Mr. Lane received was incorrect. The State's NYSPIN system was down for three days, but this did not affect the County's mobile data terminals. He also stated that there is a single panic button on a mobile data terminal that can be pushed to signal for help in the event an officer is in trouble. Ms. Blanchard asked if the radio proposal will be resolved by the next Committee meeting. Mr. Joseph stated he hopes to have it available.

        Mr. Benjamin stated at the last Towers Working Group meeting, Dave Stevenson provided longitudes and latitudes for the prospective towers sites to Jim Hanson so Mr. Hanson can begin work on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). He stated these numbers are the original numbers (theoretical) and should not be relied on for environmental assessment. He stated that it is necessary for the siting team to complete their work fairly soon so the Planning Department can move forward with the EIS.

        Mr. Lane stated he has also been approached with questions about alternatives such as satellite technology and VHF trunking. Mr. Miller stated that VHF trunking is not a possibility because the law does not allow the public safety community to trunk VHF frequencies. Mr. Wood stated satellites are very expensive and they cannot transmit through buildings so this would not be appropriate for emergency services.

PUBLIC INFORMATION

        Ms. Blanchard reported she has spoke with Wendy Skinner about preparing an extensive question and answer document that can be distributed to Board Members and the public. Mr. Penniman asked about the possibility of also having a shorter piece that can be used. Ms. Blanchard stated that this is possible, but noted the importance of not sacrificing the quality of the answer to shorten the piece.

        Mr. Benjamin stated a web site and email account will also be set-up so people can email their questions in and have them answered.

        Mr. Lane stated that there has been discussion of having a public forum and he would recommend that this be reserved solely for the towers issue.

        Ms. Blanchard asked Ms. Skinner when the next County Newsletter will be published. Ms. Skinner stated that this can be distributed to accommodate the committee and noted a significant amount of space has been set aside for this topic.

SITING OPTIONING PROCESS

        Mr. Wood stated he has been working with Mr. Miller and Mr. Shurtleff to pull together a list of potential sites using maps and the group will visit each site next week and prepare a list of sites for the Planning Department to work from. The next step will be to propose options with amounts of money and the reason why a particular amount is being offered for each site.

        Mr. Lane asked if the costs of land acquisition are included in the capital project. Mr. Wood stated that they are and in relation to the cost of the system, the cost of land acquisition is minimal. He stated some parcels will be owned and some may be leased. Mr. Lane stated he would like to speak to Mr. Wood about leasing and co-location.

PROJECT STATUS REPORTS

        DOT PROJECT

        Mr. Hanson stated that the soil tests are being conducted and a meeting will be held with the Town of Dryden once the results are received. The possibility of creating a special district for sewer and water services is also being considered.

        E911

        Mr. Shurtleff had no report.

        TOWERS PROJECT

        No additional report was given at this time.

        CISNET

        Mr. Benjamin stated the staff trainers are in training this week and the project is on schedule.

NEW BUSINESS

        Ms. Blanchard stated there was discussion at the last meeting about the approach that will be taken on the Environmental Review and that she and Mr. Joseph believe the Committee should direct Mr. Hanson to move forward with preparing a comprehensive outline of the draft Environmental Impact Statement that can be circulated to EMC Environmental Review Committee and other interested parties. She asked that the Committee give Mr. Hanson full responsibility to move this part of the project along and provide a report at the next meeting with a table of contents for the DEIS. It was the consensus of the Committee to have Mr. Hanson proceed with the preparation of the comprehensive outline. Ms. Blanchard noted Mr. Hanson has indicated that additional resources may be necessary and asked that he bring figures to the next meeting for the Committee to consider.

RADIO SURVEY REPORT

        Mr. Wilbur distributed the radio inventory that has been received to date along with possible scenarios. This is attached to the minutes. Mr. Joseph asked who in the public safety community has not responded to the request. Mr. Wilbur stated Bangs Ambulance, Cornell Public Safety, Lansing Fire, Newfield Fire, Ithaca College and the Park Police have not responded. He stated he did not make assumptions for Bangs Ambulance, Cornell Public Safety, Ithaca College, or the Park Police because he did not believe the County would be funding those agencies. He made estimates for Lansing and Newfield Fire. He also noted he did not receive inventory from Tompkins County Public Works and the City of Ithaca Public Works Department and estimates were made for them in the public works section of the handout.

ADJOURNMENT

        The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m. the next meeting will be held May 23, 2000, at Noon in the Scott Heyman Conference Room.

Return to Tompkins County

Respectfully submitted by Jennifer Luu, Administrative Assistant, Board of Representative's office.