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Michael Talbert said that when they met on November 17th there were discussions about <br />the E911 system and the Emergency Medical system. The EMS system is averaging 14,000 <br />calls annually. There are several phases and one of the goals is to decrease response times, <br />enhance the first responders' safety, and ensure system backup. The County has asked a <br />local company in Charlotte, North Carolina called Solutions for Government. Steve Allen is-the <br />President of this company. The work would involve two studies -one for Emergency Medical <br />and one for the 911 Center. There would be a thorough evaluation of what currently exists. <br />-The total cost for both plans would be $26,400. <br />PUBLIC COMMENT: <br />Bill Waddell was speaking as a long time Paramedic that serves on the South Orange. <br />Rescue Squad and speaking for the rural fire departments. <br />"We do not support a third consultant study and ask that you please not approve the <br />project. <br />"Please give the workgroup a chance to discuss the isstaes and agree on the <br />improvements that are needed. We do not believe that we need the help of a consul#ant at this <br />time. As you mentioned in November, we need real solutions now. <br />"For starters, the workgroup can quickly figure out where to site an ambulance in the <br />northern part of the county. There aren't that many options. In addition, given the contacts <br />that the fire chiefs and SORS have with medical directors all over the state, we should quickly <br />be able to get good benchmarks comparing Orange County to other emergency medical fleets <br />in North Carolina. <br />"We also believe that we need to take a hard look at the call center CAD system and <br />radios to understand the impact of replacing them -sooner than 2013/14 as the county <br />suggested and possibly as soon as next year. <br />"Please let us work on all of this before you consider engaging a consultant. <br />We'd like to invite you all to join us to visit the call center in Alamance County where they are <br />handling double the call volume (360,000 calls per year) with the same size staff as Orange <br />County. We suspect that their technology investment is contributing favorably to their low cost <br />operation and average response time of 9 minutes. They replaced their CAD system in 2009. <br />Compared to other counties, we expect to find that our call center problems and ambulance <br />fleet problems are routine. Rather than pay a consultant, we'd prefer to work with our <br />neighbors and learn from their experiences. It's a win for everyone. <br />"Please let us get to work and come back to you with recommendations that make <br />sense and work for Orange County.. Please don't ask us to wait for another consulting study. <br />There is too much to do and there is much at stake. Thank you." <br />Commissioner Jacobs asked to hear from Emergency Services Director Frank Montes <br />de Oca about his opinion on Mr. Waddell's comments. <br />Emergency Services Director Frank Montes de Oca said that the County does need to <br />engage with its users -both the volunteer groups and the professional groups. There needs to <br />be some focused gathering of data and a consultant would have athird-party perspective. He <br />said that a lot of the equipment is aging and it is expensive to replace these. <br />Commissioner Hemminger said that she liked the idea of data gathering from a third <br />party. <br />Commissioner McKee asked Frank Montes de Oca if a delay of six weeks or two <br />months was going to be a problem while the work group looks at this: His inclination is to delay <br />this until after the work group reviews this and makes a recommendation. <br />Frank Montes de Oca said that atwo-month delay would not be good. A two to four <br />week delay would be ok. <br />