Agenda - 11-19-2013 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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11 1 VIPER for disaster situations where statewide communication is needed. He said this would 2 mean investing money into our own system instead of a state system. 3 Chief Jones said Durham County has gone this way and is still open to the possibility of 4 working with Orange County. He said this provides a possibility of combining systems to 5 improve cost and coverage. 6 He suggested that radio consultants do the extra work to look into what it would take to 7 convert to 700Mgz. He said it is already known that existing towers and new towers can be 8 used. He said there would be some cost to add controllers. 9 He said the added advantage of this is the ability to add public works, transit and other 10 agencies to the system, which the state would not allow with VIPER. 11 He said he has approached the city manager about this, and he has suggested 12 governments in Orange County come together as a partnership to build this system. He 13 suggested that the Board of County Commissioners could instruct staff to direct the consultants 14 to go to this next step of looking at options. He said perhaps discussions could then be opened 15 with Durham. 16 He said this would mean that there would still be compatibility with VIPER; but there 17 would no longer be a dependency or need to wait on the state infrastructure. 18 Chair Jacobs said the Assembly of Governments (AOG) meeting with all the 19 governmental entities is being held in November. He said this issue can be raised at that 20 meeting, but he would like to see where staff stands first. 21 Michael Talbert said he and Jim Groves have had some discussions about this, and 22 there are benefits for the County. He said inter-operability with all of the other agencies is a 23 huge plus. He noted that the state is dragging their feet in making improvements, such as 24 adding channels, and there are definite limitations with the VIPER system. He said this route 25 does provide more potential. He feels that Orange County staff could explore this option. 26 Chair Jacobs asked if people would be interested in bringing this to the AOG meeting 27 for discussion. 28 Matthew Mauzy expressed his support and said this is a great time to look at this option. 29 He said one limiting factor in the potential tower site location search was the conflict with 30 existing state VIPER tower sites. He said a clean slate to develop tower locations would create 31 the potential to put more green on the maps. 32 Chief Jones asked if he understands correctly that 700 MHz has better building 33 penetration than 800 MHz. 34 Matthew Mauzy said yes. 35 Chief Jones said there is currently a terrible problem with building penetration, which is a 36 serious safety issue for fire fighters and police officers working indoors. 37 Matthew Mauzy said switching to 700 MHz will not solve all problems such as schools 38 and malls; however it could lead to better penetration into larger houses and into areas of the 39 map where 800 MHz signals trail off. 40 Jim Groves said the new radios now can include GPS and Bluetooth. He said this is a 41 great asset, and this capability is not available with the VIPER system. 42 Commissioner Price asked where this system has been successfully used already. 43 Chief Jones said it is being used around the country, and that information could be 44 found He said Durham County and Cary have their own system. 45 Commissioner Price asked if Orange County would be able to contact Durham and Cary 46 on this system. 47 Chief Jones said there would be access to the VIPER system, so in theory there would 48 be communication with anyone in the state. 49 Commissioner Price asked if work would also have to be done with Alamance County 50 since Mebane extends into Orange County.