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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: February 1, 2005 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 5_d <br />SUBJECT: Grant Pre-Application for Telecommunication Console Replacement <br />DEPARTMENT: Emergency Management <br />PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Grant Pre-Application <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Jack Ball or Eric Griffin, ext 3030 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To authorize submission of a pre-application for federal grant funding for <br />replacement consoles for the County's 911 Emergency Communications dispatch center- <br />BACKGROUND: Orange County, the Town of Chapel Hill, and other public safety agencies <br />throughout the County are collaborating on a project with the State Highway Patrol that will <br />enable Orange County to dispatch emergency responders through the State's Voice <br />Interoperability Plan for First Responders (VIPER) system. The County and its partners have <br />already been approved to receive over $2 million in Homeland Security grant funding for <br />infrastructure for this vital communications interoperability improvement project. That amount <br />includes an award announced in Spring 2004 of $1,451,000 from the 2004 Law Enforcement <br />Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP) grant for two tower sites (one in the north and one in <br />the south). <br />The County's emergency telecommunications dispatch consoles were acquired and installed in <br />1991. They have provided outstanding service, but have become technologically obsolete and <br />difficult to maintain, as spare parts are no longer manufactured and must be cannibalized from <br />other mothballed systems when needed. The County needs to purchase replacement consoles <br />that will facilitate operations within the new VIPER system, which is targeted for implementation <br />during 2005 and to go live in Orange County by 2006. <br />The attached pre-application requests 2005 LETTP federal pass through funding through the <br />Governor's Crime Commission, to cover the cost to acquire and install new consoles and for <br />technical assistance from the County's emergency telecommunications consulting specialists, <br />CTA. Pre-applications were due to the State on January 31. Staff has submitted the pre- <br />application to meet that deadline and requests the Board's action at this February 1 meeting to <br />ratify that submission.