PRESENT:     B. Blanchard, G. Totman, M. Lane, P. Penniman, J. Lalley

EXCUSED:    T. Joseph

STAFF:          S. Whicher, County Administrator; J. Hanson, M. Shakarjian, Planning Department; L. Shurtleff, Fire, Disaster and EMS; W. Skinner, Public Information Coordinator; J. Wood, Deputy County Attorney; U. Mukherjee, Administrative Services Coordinator

GUESTS:       D. Kiefer, Board of Representatives; G. McClure, ITS; L. Withiam, E911 Operations Committee; R. Webster, United Radio Inc.; B. Steinkomp, WHCU; D. Higgins, Ithaca Journal

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting opened at 12:01 p.m.

ADDITIONS TO/DELETIONS FROM AGENDA

There was no addition or deletion to the agenda.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JUNE AND JULY MEETINGS

It was MOVED by G. Totman, seconded by P. Penniman and unanimously adopted by voice vote of members present to approve the June 26, 2001 and the July 9, 2001 minutes.

COMMUNICATIONS CENTER: BUILDING COMMITTEES

Ms. Blanchard said the Building Committee met on August 16 with Egner Associates and all the County Board members received a copy of the architect’s report. Drawings are also on file at the BOR office. Mr. Withiam said the 911 Committee has reviewed the schematic design. Equipment requirements remain to be specified. In reply to a question from Mr. Lalley, Ms. Blanchard said that all queries/suggestions on schematic design at this point may be submitted to her and she will direct them to the architectural firm. Mr. Whicher said that Suzi Cook is currently working on the MOU with the City of Ithaca, Ithaca Fire Department, Town of Ithaca and Ithaca College. 

DOT RELOCATION

Mr. Hanson referred to a recent meeting with DOT in which the origin of money for relocation and its expected availability was discussed. The current State Budget impasse is holding up the process.  He said he has spoken to Mike Stamm (TCAD) about the possibility of the County IDA being the lead agency and recipient of the funds. The IDA Bond counsel recommends that a not-for-profit local development corporation (LDC) be the vehicle rather than the IDA or the County.  Ms. Blanchard said the advantage would be that the LDC could handle all  stages of the project. She said she has spoken to various people in Albany during her recent visit but nobody seemed to have an idea as to when the budget issue would be resolved. In reply to a question from Ms. Kiefer, she said that the ownership of the DOT site will be with the County.

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM PROJECT RFP DEVELOPMENT

PRESENT STATUS

Ms. Shakarjian distributed a revised schedule of the project. She said that the working group has met three times to discuss the functional specifications. Ms. Blanchard emphasized the importance of getting the working draft of the RFP ready preferably by the September 25 ComCap meeting in order to allow time for the members to go through the document with the goal of having a final document to approve at the October ComCap meeting. In reply to a question from Ms. Blanchard, Ms. Shakarjian answered that the schedule is in sync with or slightly ahead of that of the State-wide Network (SWN). Mr. Whicher said that the SWN was concerned with functional compatibility and was open to the County’s selection of a vendor. Some of the members felt that 60 days, rather than thirty, should be allowed to the vendors to respond to the RFP.

ALTERNATIVES

Mr. Whicher said that public-private partnerships are still being looked into and discussions have been held with tower companies. He said the primary focus is on coordinating with SWN as State support is essential. State Budget delays have compounded the problems. He mentioned that SWN does not have any money for next year’s activities in the Baseline Budget. Ms. Blanchard spoke of two alternatives to be included in the RFP: mobile versus portable with 95% coverage each. Mr. Lalley clarified the concept of coverage. He said by “95% coverage” is meant “95% coverage from the roadways and navigable waterways” and not coverage of 95% of the entire geographical area. This idea of coverage is as per the consensus of professionals in the field. He also said that during functional specification development, the possibility of opting for a lower coverage was considered, but the resulting savings were not found to be significant. Mr. Whicher said that the RFP would invite the vendors to suggest any better or alternate solution that they may have. 

PAGING PROJECT

Mr. Lalley distributed two handouts: Draft Project Approval Request (PAR) and Draft Request For Information - Paging System. He said that a project team has been set up comprised of himself, Mr. Miller, Mr. Wilbur, Mr. Withiam and Ms. Shakarjian. He said the purpose of the project is to replace the Low Band VHF Paging System used by the Tompkins County Fire and EMS to alert public safety agencies and personnel when their emergency services are needed. He said that the present equipment is old and difficult to maintain in good operating condition due to obsolescence of parts of the transmitting system. He referred to Section 4 of the PAR, which dealt with major alternatives considered and rejected so far. He explained why the second option “Use the proposed 800 MHz Public Safety Communications System” was not found to be viable. He said that paging equipment for use in an 800MHz trunked radio system is not available in the market. Radios used in an 800 MHz system do have an alert function and can function as pagers. There is concern that the volume of paging traffic might overload an 800 MHz system. Moreover, pagers cost about $200 each while radios cost about $1,500 each. Hence for the approximately 1,200 pagers in use, the cost of using pagers would be $240,000 compared to $1,800,000 for radios. He also spoke of the option of using a local privately operated service. The current system must remain functional and interface with the new system during a transition period of about one year. Cornell University currently operates a paging system and in this scenario, the paging control center is likely to be located in the combined 911 dispatch facility. A Request for Information  (RFI) is being developed to explore all of these options. 

Mr. Lalley said the proposed budget for the Paging Project would be under $1 million but might be in the $600,000 range. He referred to Section 5 of the PAR giving the proposed schedule for the project. The RFI process will begin early September, the RFP is expected to go out late in the year and procurement should start early next year. 

In reply to a question by Mr. Lane on the proposed arrangement with Cornell, Mr. Lalley said that a paging command and control center can be remotely administered by a number of people. In reply to another question, Mr. Lalley said that it is his understanding that the police agencies use commercial services and would not be using these pagers. Mr. Whicher suggested that Mr. Miller and Mr. Shurtleff review the funds requirement for the project. Mr. Lalley clarified that the project excludes funding the purchase of pagers by other non-county users of the system such as local fire and EMS organizations. The group discussed the idea of offering such agencies some kind of payment plan for the purchase.

OTHER/OLD BUSINESS

Mr. Lane wanted to know the status of filling the position of Communications Center Director. Mr. Whicher said he had a meeting with the Fire Advisory Board last evening but the members were not receptive to the proposed organizational structure. The job description will be re-written to take care of their concerns. The revised job description will be reviewed by the 911 Committee and then the position will be advertised.

Mr. Lane asked if there has been any response to the County’s letter to the municipalities requesting them to name a person or local board, i.e. planning board, town board, or other, to deal with tower location issues. Ms. Blanchard replied she will check with Ms. Mink on this but does not believe a response to that question has been received.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 1:22 p.m. The next meeting will be held September 25, 2001 at noon in the Scott Heyman Conference Room.
 
 

Submitted by Ujjal Mukherjee, Administrative Services Coordinator.