NS - Grant - Pre-Application for Telecommunication Console Replacement

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Print Grant Pre-Application Information Problem and Project Operation `~ The Problem: Orange County Emergency Management is the primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and dispatch center for the County, its municipalities, and those agencies that provide emergency services to the University and Hospital. The current radio systems utilize discrete VHF and UHF frequencies, which limits interoperability between public safety agencies. To remedy this problem, the county has requested, and received, funding from the 2004 Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program to pay for two 800 MHz VIPER tower sites for the county. The state Highway Patrol is leading the installation process. The problem is that the dispatch center cannot presently dispatch on the 800 MHz band. Efforts are underway to bring local law enforcement and emergency services agencies onto the 800 MHz VIPER platform. However, unless the dispatch center's equipment is not upgraded, emegency service units will be unable to be dispatched to 9-1-1 emergency calls, nor will the dispatch center be able to receive information from those emergency responders, especially in cases life-threatening situations. Project Operation: Law enforcement agencies of the County, towns of Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Mebane, as well as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Police, and UNC Hospitals Police would directly benefit from these grant funds to create an interoperable communications system in the county, as well as all 11 fire departments in the county, Orange County Emergency Medical Services, Orange County Emergency Management, Orange County Rescue Squad, South Orange EMS and Rescue, and Orange County Public Health. Orange County is in an 800 MHz radio area that is VIPER compatible. A Universal Memorandum of Agreement has been signed by all parties that will participate in the project and will be submitted along with the signature pages. If this proposal is funded, VIPER interoperable communications equipment will be installed in the 9-1-1 Communications center housed within Orange County Emergency Management. This will allow the dispatch of emergency services within the county, provide for communication with incoming mutual aid units which are part of the VIPER network, and interface with our backup 9-1-1 center, the University Public Safety dispatch center. This project will involve the construction of a communications tower connected to the dispatch center that is necessary in order to relay radio transmissions to the State Highway Patrol tower at Eno mountain. The tower will have a five channel repeater which will increase the radio coverage along the 1-40/I-85 corridor. Orange County public safety agencies are committed to implementing the VIPER project in the county and in support of this proposal have designated $474,000 of the county's homeland security grant funding to purchase 148 VIPER compatible portable radios. We are also asking for additional radios to provide three (3) portable radios to each public safety agency in the county. All the radios that are to be purchased are APCO P-25 Compliant, 800 MHz compatible, and are upgradeable to digital communications, and that the prices in the budget section of the pre-application are reflective of radios meeting these specifications. The project will utilize a contractor to complete a consolidated 800 MHz communications implentation plan to lead the county in switching over to the 800 MHz platform. The county will follow standard bidding procedures; amounts listed in the application are an estimate from anon-binding single source quote for the purpose of the grant application. Page 2 http://www.ncgccd.org/applications/GMSPreApp2005/PrintHTMLPreApp.cfm 1/26/2005