Minutes 05-02-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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28 Chair Dorosin asked if VIPER will let them use their towers. Cliff Brown said it depends on who owns the tower, and some will allow use, and some will not. Chair Dorosin asked if the recommendation is to abandon VIPER. Cliff Brown said yes, and the main reasons are: coverage, capacity, and reliability. Chair Dorosin said asked if there is an option between the $2 million and the $30 million; and it seems like that is the $26 million option. Cliff Brown said this is recommended answer. He said the VHF solution would provide County coverage, and consists of 10 sites and costs $10 million. He said this would be conventional analogue, and VHF involves a lot of interference and skip. He said new frequencies would be needed, which may be difficult due to how long VHF has been in use. He said there are grants available, and usually require systems to be P25 and have interoperability. He said these requirements promote counties coming together to create regional systems. Chair Dorosin asked if there is a lot of grant funding available. Cliff Brown said there are multiple grants per year, and the amounts vary greatly. Chair Dorosin asked if other areas are leaving VIPER. Cliff Brown said some are leaving, and some are joining the system. He said there are a large variety of radio systems across the State. Bonnie Hammersley said staff wanted the BOCC to have this report before discussing capital prioritization next week. She said no action is required this evening. Chair Dorosin said the proposed plan notes that the first four towers should be in the southern end of the County. He said there seems to be good coverage in this part of the County already, and asked if these towers should be put in more rural areas where coverage is lacking. Cliff Brown said that plan would move the higher quantity of users into a new system, where they are not competing for fewer channels on the VIPER system. He said this would offer the quickest relief to the problems with VIPER, to the largest number of users. He said P25 is the industry standard and is connected to all funding streams, but VIPER is P25 and so this would be retained as a backup system. He said all surrounding counties are P25, which allows for interoperability and mutual aid. c. Bicycle Safety Task Force (BSTF) Report and Next Steps The Board received a presentation on the Bicycle Safety Task Force Report, and provided direction on next steps. Abigaile Pittman, Transportation/Land Use Planner II, reviewed the following background information BACKGROUND: The process that led to the development of the BSTF Report began in November 2014 with a Board petition to review policies related to bicycle safety and working with stakeholder groups to develop a culture of sharing the road. The Manager asked Planning staff to work with the OUTBoard to set up a subgroup to discuss and develop a plan. Planning staff proposed a plan to address the petition regarding OUTBoard/Bicycle Safety, which was provided as an information item to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on February 3, 2015. The materials and minutes for this meeting can be found at the following link: http://server3.co.orange.nc.us:8088/WebLink8/0/doc/36289/Pagel.aspx.