The city of Emporia must spend some money between now and 2013 to improve its communication equipment.
The question is should the city just do the bare minimum, do some quick fixes or perform some substantial upgrades to have better equipment in the future.
Specifically, the Emporia City Commission will look this summer at four funding options. They are:
A) Spend $191,100 to narrow-band the existing system to bring in into compliance.
B) Spend $129,600 to do some quick-fixes to existing equipment.
C) Spend $212,575 to move the Public Works Department to UHF. This allows for a common radio ban, another repeater for use and the city to move to a trunked system at a later date.
D) Spend $1.09 million to extend trunking countywide.
City commissioners know they have to do A and they can?t afford to do D right now. So the question is whether to do also do B and C.
Commissioners told City Manager Matt Zimmerman last month to present them with three options during 2012 budget discussions. At that time, the commission will decide how much to spend.
?I like to look at all three options, with the knowledge that at least the number one is going to have to happen in 2012 budget,? said Commissioner Rob Gilligan. ?I don?t want to eliminate 2 and 3 without having looked at that budget.?
Any project will have to wait until 2012. The city did not budget money in 2011 for communications improvements and commissioners aren?t in favor of adjusting this year?s budget to include it.
The genesis for the push for better communication equipment came from the FCC. The city must meet FCC regulations that emergency communication meet narrow-banding requirements by Jan. 1, 2013.
The city hired Praecom Communication in September to perform a communication study. The cost was $32,365 though the city received a $17,702 grant, which reduced the city?s cost to $14,663. Lyon County was invited to participate in the study but declined.
The goal of the study was to evaluate existing radio communications systems, review regulation changes that affect the city?s radio system, review changes in technology that can apply to the city?s current and future operations and make recommendations for improvements.
There are problems at times with the current radio system. Sometimes it doesn?t provide adequate coverage in some buildings and geographic locations. Rural areas typically are the most troubled spots.
In talking with staff, Allen Underdown, president of Praecom Communication, found that the highest priorities for radio communication was reliable, accessibility, safety, improved dispatcher response and ease of use.
?We need to move forward,? said Mayor Kevin Nelson. ?The study showed we have a lot of things to cure over time.?
Underdown listed several quick fixes in the study, such as obtaining the correct licenses for the rural fire departments and south tower site, moving repeaters from the Civic Center to either the city/county tower or the east water tank and moved the control station from the Police Department to the top floor of Civic Auditorium.
The city has 25 frequencies licensed in the UHF portion of the radio spectrum and four in the VHF band. Currently, police, EMS and fire use UHF repeaters. But public works and parks employees utilized the VHF portions of the band. Thus radios in public works vehicles can?t be utilized by police or fire employees, Underdown said.
Trunking is a radio system whereby the access and frequency selection of any specific transmission is computer controlled. The system consists of one or more control channels and several talk path channels, depending on the number of users accessing the system.
Underdown said that trunking does not improve coverage, but provides a set of features that will alleviate many of the problems the city has with the existing system.
As for the future, Commissioner Joel Phipps said he?s concerned about the bigger picture. A radio study group would be reasonable, he said.
He said everyone has a wish list. Before committing money for a state of the art system, they need to talk with school district and county.
?Those are conversations that have to be brought fourth,? he said.
Zimmerman didn?t disagree. But before talking with the other government entities, he wanted to get some level of commitment from city commissioners that they are on board financially with improvements.
?I don?t know if the county or school district would be willing to participate,? he said. ?We do know there?s some benefit to us by having better interoperability. We presume the county would agree. But is it worth more money? We obviously haven?t had those conversations.?
Source: http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2011/jun/10/city-communication-updates-necessary-expensive/
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