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Tompkins County Breaks Ground For Public Safety Communications
System
With a sense of accomplishment and expressing
high hopes, Tompkins County officials today broke ground to kick off
construction of the County’s new Public Safety Communications
System.
The new, ten-tower system, studied and debated for close to a decade,
will replace the County’s aging, 30-year-old communications network
and, through new technology, will enable the County’s first responders
to communicate with each other and with the County’s central dispatch
center more effectively than ever before. The $22 million project
is the largest capital project in the County’s history.
“This is truly a monumental step forward, a critical public safety
project,” said Lee Shurtleff, the County’s Director of Emergency
Response. “Within a year, we expect to see tremendous improvement
in overall communications, benefiting not only our dedicated emergency
responders, but ultimately the citizens we serve.”
The groundbreaking took place at the system’s Mount
Pleasant site, located on Cornell-owned land in the Town of Dryden,
which is one of six existing facilities where structures will be
shared, reused or rebuilt. Mr. Shurtleff stressed that, to
minimize environmental impact, the County has worked hard to maximize
use of existing facilities. Four new sites also will be added,
one each in the Towns of Enfield and Caroline and two in the Town of
Danby. None of the system’s new towers will be over 200 feet tall
or will require lighting.
Work at the locations will include site preparation, bringing in
electrical service where necessary, constructing tower sheds and
fencing, erecting the radio towers, hanging equipment on the towers,
and improving access to the sites. Site work will be completed by
the end of the year, equipment installed over the winter, and
acceptance testing conducted next spring. The new system is
scheduled to be up and running by July 2007.
The County negotiated a $13.2 million contract with
Motorola, Inc. to build the new system, as General Contractor, and to
provide system-compatible radios to be used by first responders.
Some of the project’s subcontractors include Pyramid Network Services,
LLC, of East Syracuse, for civil work project management services;
Midstate Communications, of Oriskany, NY, for tower and antenna
installation; Microwave Networks, Inc., from Texas, for the microwave
system; and R. B. Robinson Contractors, of Candor and various other
local subcontractors for site preparation. SSI, Inc.,
headquartered in Harrisburg, PA, serves as the County’s radio system
consultant. The County has contracted with United Radio, based in
Syracuse, to provide the emergency response paging system, which will
take place later in the project.
County officials note that the project already has spent about $3
million dollars to build and equip the County’s new 911 Center and
erect the tower at the Department of Emergency Response. They
predict project cost will be offset by multiple revenue streams, such
as federal member-item grant funding which has been pledged, and from
partners including the State Wireless Network, which is developing a
statewide emergency communications system. Revenue also will be
generated from future co-location of other services on the tower
structures. Officials also appreciate Cornell University’s
commitment to develop appropriate connectivity between Cornell’s and
the County’s systems.
The system will utilize 800 mHz simulcast digital trunking to
enable emergency responders across agencies to talk to each other and
to the emergency response center in “talk groups”, remedying a chronic
problem that has been an ongoing source of frustration for emergency
services personnel. It also will enable the transmission of data
and will eliminate the “dead spots” in radio reception that currently
exist. As part of the project, contractors must guarantee an
acceptable voice signal in 95 percent of 4,000 testing grids throughout
the county. Mobile data services must still be finalized, as the
County works to employ the latest advances in mobile data technology.
“We’re very, very confident in the quality of this system,” says County
Administrator Stephen Whicher.
December 20, 2005
LEGISLATURE APPROVES EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT
The Tompkins County Legislature approved several actions that formally launch the County’s new Public Safety Communications System (PSCS). The Findings Statement that describes the environmental impact and any mitigations for the project was adopted, and the Legislature also authorized the County Administrator to sign a $13.2 million contract with the system vendor, Motorola, Inc. A separate contract with United Radio, Inc. for the paging portion of the project was also approved, as was authorization to go to public bid for construction of communications towers. The total cost of the project – including tower construction, end-user equipment, paging and mobile data systems, and consultants’ fees – is estimated at $17.5 million. The current system, much of which is antiquated and in a state of progressive deterioration, will be replaced by new technology and new and/or rebuilt infrastructure. The capabilities, amount of coverage, and reliability of the emergency communications network will be vastly improved by the project. The ten-tower system will incorporate six existing tower sites where structures may be shared, reused, or rebuilt. Only four towers will be constructed at completely new sites, and none of the new towers will be over 200 feet tall or will require lighting. The County anticipates completion of the project by December 2006.
December 12, 2005
COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM GAINS COMMITTEE APPROVAL FOR START IN 2006
The Public Safety Committee of the Tompkins County Legislature today gave its unanimous approval to several actions that move the long-awaited countywide emergency communications system closer to a construction start in 2006. The County has negotiated a $13.2 million contract with Motorola, Inc. to provide the electronics and radio technology for the Public Safety Communications System. The total cost of the system – including tower construction, end-user equipment, paging and mobile data systems, and consultants’ fees – will approach $17.5 million, County Administrator Steve Whicher said today.
The system will link all of the County’s emergency responders with each other and the County’s central dispatch center in a far more flexible and far-reaching manner than is currently possible. The ten-tower system will incorporate six existing tower sites where structures may be shared, reused, or rebuilt. Only four towers need to be constructed on never-before-used sites, and none of the new towers will be over 200 feet tall or will require lighting.
The Motorola contract includes $11.2 million for the radio system and just under $2 million for system-compatible radios used by first responders. Each police force, fire department, ambulance company, etc. will need to have new radio equipment. The County will provide base stations and vehicle-mounted radios to the end-users. How the cost of portable (handheld) radios will be assigned has not been determined.
A separate bidding process will be used for construction of the system infrastructure, which includes new or rebuilt towers and other site work such as equipment shelters, access drives, fencing, and utilities. The cost for the towers and all needed site work is estimated at between $2 million and $2.5 million. Motorola is free to join the competitive bid process for this portion of the project. The bid documents will go out at the end of December, pending final project approvals by the full County Legislature.
The anticipated timetable for the project shows a site work contractor chosen by the end of January 2006, site work completed by July, Motorola’s installation of equipment completed by September, acceptance testing in October, and final acceptance and countywide use of the system by December 2006. County Attorney Jonathan Wood said the County will hold back 10 percent of the contract cost until after final acceptance of the Motorola system. Testing of the promised radio coverage will be done in a series of 4,000 grids, each a quarter-mile on a side, throughout the county. An acceptable voice signal must be guaranteed in 95 percent of the grids, which encompass virtually all passable streets and roadways.
Also part of the total $17.5 million project is a separate system for voice paging, to be built by United Radio, based in Auburn NY, for a cost under $300,000. It has already been agreed that end-users, not the County, will purchase their own pagers. A mobile data system that will allow police officers to use car-mounted computers to access records will be added to the system once it is completed. The mobile data portion of the project is estimated to cost around $1 million.
A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the project was released on October 18, 2005. Public comment on the DEIS was accepted at a hearing and via written comments submitted during a 30-day public comment period, which ended November 18. Joan Jurkowich, Deputy Planning Commissioner, reported that, in addition to oral comments at the hearing, eleven written comments were submitted. Four comments came from residents who live or own property near a proposed tower site, four were from municipal officials and three were submitted by County officials, including a representative of the Environmental Management Council. In accordance with State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) regulations, the comments have been addressed and will become part of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). Any necessary mitigations are described in the FEIS.
Jurkowich stated that, as a result of concerns over the location of a new tower in north Danby, the County will move the site about 400 to 450 feet. The repositioning will not affect performance of the system and will place the tower further from a nearby residence, mitigating both the visual and noise impacts. The last step in the environmental impact process is preparation of a Findings Statement that summarizes the FEIS and the mitigations. Jurkowich said the Findings Statement is being completed and will be available for review in a few days.
The $17.5 million project is the largest capital project the County has ever undertaken. The County has been planning for the project for some time, however, and has budgeted funds to pay the bills. Whicher explained that $1.2 million dedicated to the project remains in the 2005 County budget, and another $1 million was included in the 2006 budget. $1 million in member item funding awaits use, and the County has requested $2 million more in member items. The County will need to borrow the remaining money through municipal bonding, but the cost of borrowing – about $1.5 million in interest payments – has already been included in the property tax levy.
Annual maintenance costs for the new system will be in the $300,000 to $500,000 range, said Whicher. About $100,000 is typically budgeted for annual maintenance now, and the County earns $100,000 in co-location fees charged to other entities such as cell phone companies who rent antenna space on the County’s towers. Future co-location revenues and possible long-term revenues from the State, which will probably share the County’s infrastructure for its own communications system, may help offset the increased annual costs, said Whicher.
On December 20, the full County Legislature will be asked to approve
the FEIS and adopt the Findings Statement. Then it will be asked to
authorize
the signing of contracts with Motorola and United Radio, and to approve
sending out the bid documents for the tower and site work.