Agenda - 09-19-2006-7c - Laserfiche WebLink

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~J Commissioners with one of the spare radio devices to provide an alternate means of communication. John Link suggested doing this next month since it is winter.. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the evacuation procedures and said that Progress Energy might be asked to put more money in to help with this. She understands that they are not putting in as much money as they should. She asked that the staff research this. She would like the staff to do something concrete in the short term, Commissioner Halkiotis said that he would not want a crash course during an incident, He said that his wife suggested having a dial out system, just like the school systems, to alert people of an emergency,. There needs to be an alert system. Jack Ball said that there are technologies available, but it is a budgetary concern, He will add it to the budget. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he would like a demo of this technology before the budget season. Jack Ball said that they have been working collaboratively with municipal partners and they are learning other avenues of making notifications. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the quick reference card and that the two locations for shelters are listed but there are no phone numbers listed..lack Ball said that they would use the schools' phone numbers. If someone needed to contact the shelter, they would contact EMS at 968-2050. Commissioner Jacobs said that with Hurricane Katrina, they needed a coordinated effort or number to find people. Also, under pets, he thinks it says that anyone is welcome to bring a pet, but that Animal Services will take care of it. He suggested a rewording as follows: "Pets are welcome, but Animal Services will be on hand to board and take care of them." He also suggested distributing this information in the same format that was used to distribute the school district tax information. He also suggested putting it in all of the tax bills every year and sending it to the schools for the children to take home. Commissioner Halkiotis said that they need to explore telephone book uses and include a number in those. Any other way to get the information out other than the mail will be good.. Chair Carey suggested going with option one and supplementing it with free options for distribution, Eric Griffin said that they did receive samples of a magnet style that incorporates Commissioner Halkiotis' suggestion. This would be option 2, Commissioner Halkiotis suggested getting these printing services locally.. Rod Visser made reference to the grants and said that part of the reason for the success they have had with increasing their communications abilities has been the regional approach that Wake, Durham, Orange, and other surrounding counties have taken to apply jointly for grant funding.. The next round of Homeland Security grant funding is coming up, and there will be more information about this soon. Commissioner Foushee asked how many of the municipalities within the County have compatibility with the VIPER system and Jack Ball said that they all would eventually. He said that Chapel Hill Fire is ordering some radios and additional radios are coming. The volunteer fire departments have been writing grants to get more radios. The staff is also working on grants to provide as many 800 megahertz radios as passible. They will need to discuss how best to distribute the radios based on need, budgetary concerns, and local service to be provided. Commissioner Foushee asked how long they would have to run a dual radio system and Jack Ball said for at (east another 22 months and they would probably run VHF indefinitely.