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ORD-2024-005 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: March 7, 2024 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 8-f <br /> SUBJECT: Procurement of Automated Fire-EMS Alerting System and Approval of Budget <br /> Amendment #6-B <br /> DEPARTMENT: Emergency Services <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> 1. US Digital Designs Contract Kirby Saunders, Emergency Services <br /> 2. Year-to-Date Budget Summary Director, 919-245-6123 <br /> Christopher Ward, Division Chief— <br /> Public Safety Communications, 919- <br /> 245-6139 <br /> PURPOSE: To approve the purchase of an automated Fire/EMS alerting system for the County's <br /> primary and backup Public Safety Communications Centers, and to approve Budget Amendment <br /> #6-B to provide for the total cost of the system. <br /> BACKGROUND: For many years, Orange County has relied on a manual process to alert fire <br /> and emergency medical services (EMS) response personnel to emergency calls through multiple <br /> radio resources. The current process is cumbersome, time consuming, and prone to human error. <br /> Emergency Services desires to implement a system to automate this process. Doing so will <br /> reduce Public Safety Telecommunicator workload, reduce the frequency of human dispatch <br /> errors, and improve public safety response times through shortening the time necessary to <br /> dispatch an emergency call. <br /> Emergency Services staff have reviewed and selected the Phoenix G2 alerting system from US <br /> Digital Designs using the competitively bid Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) contract <br /> (Contract# EC07-23). Fully redundant systems would be installed at both the primary and backup <br /> Public Safety Communications Centers. The systems are completely compatible with the alerting <br /> technology used by the County's public safety partner agencies today while supporting other more <br /> advanced alerting technology that may be adopted by those partner agencies later. This system <br /> is already in use in several other North Carolina localities. <br /> FINANCIAL IMPACT: The total cost of the project is $115,030.03. The NC 911 Board has <br /> approved in writing the use of Emergency Telephone System Funds for the entire cost of the <br /> project. <br /> Budget Amendment #6-B appropriates available fund balance from the County's 911 Emergency <br /> Telephone System Fund to cover the expenditures, and amends the 911 Emergency Telephone <br /> System Fund Ordinance: <br />