|
MAY 28, 2002 - 11:30 A.M. - SCOTT HEYMAN CONFERENCE ROOM
PRESENT: B. Blanchard, G. Totman, P. Penniman, M. Robertson, R. Booth STAFF: S. Whicher, County Administrator; M. Shakarjian, Capital Program Coordinator; U. Mukherjee, Administrative Services Coordinator GUESTS: D. Kiefer, Board of Representatives; J. Lalley, Cornell University; D. Barber, Supervisor, Town of Caroline; E. Mulvihill, WHCU CALL TO ORDER The meeting opened at 11:35 a.m. Ms. Blanchard announced that Mr. Booth will serve on the committee in place of Mr. Lane. She distributed the following handouts: Revised Agenda for the Meeting; Letter dated May 20 to Ms. Blanchard from Ronald Flynn, President, Fire & EMS Chief’s Association; Questions from EMC Meeting of May 8; Paging System Frequently Asked Questions; and copy of email dated May 27 from Mr. Shurtleff. ADDITIONS TO/DELETIONS FROM THE AGENDA None APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF APRIL 19 AND APRIL 30 MEETINGS It was MOVED by Mr. Totman, seconded by Ms. Robertson, and unanimously adopted by voice vote by members present, to approve the April 19, 2002 minutes. It was MOVED by Mr. Penniman, seconded by Ms. Robertson, and unanimously adopted by voice vote by members present, to approve the April 30, 2002 minutes with the recommended changes. PAGING SYSTEM Mr. Lalley spoke of the recent presentations on the paging system: to the County Board on May 7, to the Environmental Management Council (EMC) on May 8 and to the Fire & EMS Chief’s Association on May 19. He referred to the handout on questions from the EMC meeting and said the paging team endeavored to answer all of them at the meeting. He also referred to the letter of support from Fire & EMS Chief’s Association distributed earlier. He said he met with Mr. Shurtleff and Ms. Shakarjian on May 18 when a task list for the paging team was drawn up. Some of the major tasks were as follows: obtaining capital and operating costs for the proposed sites; determination of solution to operation on knox boxes; exploration of alternatives for siting and finalizing project design; finalizing planning budget; determining equipment required for paging and public safety communications system (PSCS) console; and securing frequency. He said he is still working with Rick Webster of United Radio on the possibility of avoiding the two new towers proposed on Taft Road and Aiken Road. He stated that he expected to seek County approval for the project by July 15. Ms. Shakarjian distributed copies of the PSCS Timeline, last two pages of which were in respect of the paging system. She said the new system is expected to be operational by June 2003. In reply to a question by Mr. Booth regarding the status of the Environmental Impact Statement, Ms. Shakarjian said she expected the first draft to be ready by July 15. She mentioned that the FCC license application for the required frequency has been completed. In reply to another question by Mr. Booth regarding the possibility of any phasing of the project, Mr. Lalley said that this is not feasible as we have to move from the existing system to the new one as per a transition plan. In response to a suggestion by Ms. Robertson on the need to project alternative scenarios in view of budget constraints, Ms. Blanchard remarked that it would not be feasible to target for anything less than 90% plus coverage. Mr. Lalley pointed out that we will try to co-locate in new towers constructed by private companies. Mr. Whicher added that this was a distinct possibility as the proposed new towers were in areas where signal reception was poor. In reply to a question by Mr. Penniman regarding the mode of financing pagers, Mr. Whicher said that the 4-year payback scheme for end-users was just a proposal at this stage and the details needed to be worked out. Next Ms. Blanchard spoke on the issue of inter-municipal cooperation in respect of siting the two new towers proposed. She said Don Barber had some suggestions regarding the tower proposed to be located in his community and invited him to speak. Mr. Barber said that the County would be exempt from going through the Town approval process if the County were to build the tower on its own without the involvement of parties with commercial interests. Hence, in his view, if the County proposed to share space in a private tower, it still had to go through the approval process. He noted that the aim of the Town was to mitigate impacts such as those relating to height and visibility issues. Ms. Shakarjian spoke on the availability of funds for project planning. She said that $141,000 was currently available for the project and hence no board resolution was required now. The contract with United Radio would be revised. Mr. Lalley and Mr. Barber left at this point at 12:13 p.m. PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS CENTER Mr. Whicher said that sewer permit has been obtained. He said that figures for antenna height and base area of the building are awaited from Bob Nicholas. He expected a schematic design from Egner Associates by May 30, which would be presented to the Building Committee for review and then forwarded to the Village of Lansing. Ms. Shakarjian elaborated on some of the task timelines as given in the PSCS Schedule distributed earlier and spoke of coordination efforts with NYSTEC and the Sheriff’s Department. She referred to the NYSTEC report on the line-of-sight and said that the site appeared to be good from the communications angle. RFP COMMUNICATIONS UPGRADE Ms. Shakarjian said that a condensed version of the RFP was on the web except the proposal form, which has been put on a CD. She said that there have been three requests for the CDs so far. She said that 221 notification letters have been sent out including 91 to vendors. In reply to a question by Mr. Booth, Ms. Shakarjian said that our aim was to select one prime contractor. She said that a pre-bid conference would be held in the Human Services Building on June 18. Next Ms. Shakarjian spoke on the need to put together a team to decide
on criteria for evaluation of proposals. The NYSTEC draft evaluation
plan would serve as a guide. She mentioned cost, environmental issues and
public safety as the broad criteria for evaluation. In reply to a question
by Mr. Booth regarding the availability of any NYS evaluation criteria
applicable at the local level, Mr. Whicher said we could approach SWN for
obtaining their criteria, if available. The group decided to set up an
evaluation team comprised of the following members: Mr. Totman, Ms. Robertson,
Mr. Whicher, Mr.Wood, Mr. Shurtleff and Ms. Shakarjian.
Ms. Blanchard referred to Mr. Shurtleff’s email distributed earlier
regarding the status of the cell phone surcharge issue. She also said that
clarification on the NYS budget regarding allocation of funds for the DOT
Project was still awaited.
The meeting adjourned at 12:45 p.m.
Submitted by Ujjal Mukherjee,
Administrative Services Coordinator.
|