NS - Grant - Pre-Application for Telecommunication Console Replacement

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: February 1, 2005 Action Agenda Item No. 5_~,I SUBJECT• Grant Pre-Application for Telecommunication Console Replacement DEPARTMENT: Emergency Management PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): Grant Pre-Application INFORMATION CONTACT: Jack Ball or Eric Griffin, ext 3030 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To authorize submission of apre-application for federal grant funding for replacement consoles for the County's 911 Emergency Communications dispatch center. BACKGROUND: Orange County, the Town of Chapel Hill, and other public safety agencies throughout the County are collaborating on a project with the State Highway Patrol that will enable Orange County to dispatch emergency responders through the State's Voice Interoperability Plan for. First Responders (VIPER) system. The County and its partners have already been approved to receive over $2 million in Homeland Security grant funding for infrastructure for this vital communications interoperability improvement project. That amount includes an award announced in Spring 2004 of $1,451,000 from the 2004 Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP) grant for two tower sites (one in the north and one in the south). The County's emergency telecommunications dispatch consoles were acquired and installed in 1991. They have provided outstanding service, but have become technologically obsolete and difficult to maintain, as spare parts are no longer manufactured and must be cannibalized from other mothballed systems when needed. The County needs to purchase replacement consoles that will facilitate operations within the new VIPER system, which is targeted for implementation during 2005 and to go live in Orange County by 2006. The attached pre-application requests 2005 LETTP federal pass through funding through the Governor's Crime Commission, to cover the cost to acquire and install new consoles and for technical assistance from the County's emergency telecommunications consulting specialists, CTA. Pre-applications were due to the State on January 31. Staff has submitted the pre- application to meet that deadline and requests the Board's action at this February 1 meeting to ratify that submission.