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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: February 17, 2004 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~j `~j <br />SUBJECT: Acceptance of Grant From the Public Safety Foundation of America for <br />Wireless 9-1-1 <br />DEPARTMENT: Emergency Management PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Resolution <br />Grant Award Letter <br />Grant Agreement <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Nick Waters, 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 approve acceptance of a competitive grant award from the Public Safety <br />Foundation of America in the amount of $33,100 for equipment, software, and professional <br />services. <br />BACKGROt1ND: Ourrently, wireless callers to 9-1-1 are mapped manually using the latitude <br />and longitude coordinates provided by the wireless telephone companies. Telecommunicators <br />must physically move to a location within the 9-1-1 center and enter the coordinates into a <br />computer terminal to receive the graphical location, Wireless telephones are becoming more <br />prominent and have begun replacing landline communications, resulting in increased difficultly <br />in quickly locating callers. Early last year, Orange County Emergency Management began <br />looking for a solution to remedy this problem utilizing cost effective methods, <br />In October 2003, the Department of Emergency Management applied to the Public Safety <br />Foundation of America (PSFA) for a grant to assist in implementing automatic location mapping <br />capability for wireless callers. The department was notified by letter on January 13, 2004 that <br />its grant request was approved. This was a competitive grant with 106 applications filed and <br />only 43 funded. The County's application is currently the only funded application from North <br />Carolina. <br />The implementation of the entire mapping capability project consists of two interconnected <br />phases. Phase one included the Wireless Communications Coordinator position, which was <br />filled in late October 2003, Phase two will be funded through the grant and involves the <br />purchase of equipment and software for the 9-1-1 center as well as the hiring of a contractor to <br />provide computer coding services, Once this remaining phase has been completed, the 9-1-1 <br />center should be able to automatically map the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates provided <br />by the telephone companies. <br />