NS - Grant - Conceptual Approval for Submission of Homeland Security Grant Funding Application

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Prepared 3!03!05 STAFF REPORT ON O REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS INTEROPERABILITY GRANT APPLICATION Jack Ball, Kent McKenzie, Mike Tapp, and Eric Griffin attended a meeting hosted by Wake County Emergency Management on Tuesday, March 1, 2005 regarding the 2005 Homeland Security Grant funding for VIPER infrastructure. The funding for 2005 homeland security grant is being administered differently this year than in the past. Orange County will no longer receive funding on a per capita basis. We must apply for a competitive grant on a regional basis. VIPER is the number 1 priority for the grant reviewers. The state has earmarked 50% of the local allotment towards VIPER infrastructure (approx $9.5 million statewide). For this $9.5 million, the Triangle J Council of Governments has pulled together a group of EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement representatives to submit applications for different homeland security equipment. The meeting staff attended was solely about infrastructure. The group discussed the priorities of the grant reviewers at the state level which are believed to be: • Tower sites • Communication center interoperability • Field tactical interoperability The committee discussed and agreed to request funding for five tower sites at $500,000 each for one in each of Granville, Durham, Franklin, Chatham, and Lee counties. The Durham site will provide additional coverage for Orange County. The communications center interoperability will provide communications capabilities for communication between communications centers. The field tactical interoperability will connect other wireless communication systems into an 800 MHZ system. This electronics package connects VHF, UHF, satellite phone, Nextel, and regular landline phones to a particular radio talk group. Orange County requested a field tactical interoperability system for the 9-1-1 center to serve us during the period of time between the 800 MHZ system going live in the County until we can obtain the new dispatch consoles. It is strongly emphasized that this is solely a stopgap measure because the field system is grossly inadequate to our needs as there is a delay in transmission as the system must switch from one radio system to a different radio system for transmission. Our console grant application from a different grant funding stream is also valid for this funding stream as well, so if we do not receive funding from the early grant application, then it could possibly be funded by this grant program. There will be an additional meeting March 8th to discuss the specific needs of EMS, Fire and Law enforcement as it applies to non-communications homeland security needs. This has an available pool of $9.5 million also. We plan to submit a regional training proposal for incident command training as it is required by the federal government for future grant funding eligibility.