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Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners Work Session — 12/06/2010 CABARRUS COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SYSTEM Current status — The County's current radio system is a Motorola Analog Smartnet version 3.2, 800 mhz trunked system that was installed in 1995. The system's prime site controllers are currently housed at Concord's Fire Station #3 with support towers /sites /transmitters located throughout the county. Each jurisdiction owns /operates a 911 dispatch center and various communication towers which are linked together to create the "system ". The system is currently maintained and serviced by the City of Concord with the Cabarrus County ($118,000) and the City of Kannapolis paying an annual user fee to fund a proportional amount of the staffing and operational costs to keep the system working. Several modifications have been made over the last 15 years to improve the overall system and meet the ever changing demands of our public safety departments. However the system is rapidly approaching the end of its life. In fact, we will have to replace the entire system no later than 2015 because our vendor (Motorola) will be discontinuing support of their analog systems and will only support their new digital base systems. This means that replacement parts /software are becoming very hard to find and will ultimately go away leaving our current system in a vulnerable situation. Future needs /plans - Replace the current system with a P25 Digital System that will allow for a higher degree of interoperability within the county and throughout the Charlotte region. The new system has an estimated cost of $7 - 9 million which will be shared proportionately between our three jurisdictions. How the cost will be divided has not been established at this time. To prepare for the new digital system all three jurisdictions and some of the volunteer fire departments have began purchasing new radios that will continue to operate on the current analog system and will also operate on the new digital system. The county began this radio transition two years ago and will be completing the project during 2011 budget year. The project required approximately $1.2 million budgeted over a three year period. With the current state of the economy staff of all three jurisdictions has searched for a method of delaying the purchase of the new system until it absolutely necessary while still maintaining the current system to meet the demands of our public safety agencies. During our search an opportunity has presented itself that will not only upgrade our current system, it will also allow our system to be part of the "Regional Public Safety Radio System" that is housed in Charlotte. Current members of the regional system are the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, City of Monroe, Union County, and Gaston County. This is an interoperable system that allows each jurisdiction to continue to operate independently but at the same time be a part the larger system should the need arise to cross county/city lines and communicate to public agencies from multiple jurisdictions. The approximate cost to join this system is $975,000 which would be funded entirely by grant funds that are currently held by the City of Charlotte for the purpose of expanding the regional influence of their system. Therefore the county /cities will be able to extend the life of our current system (2 -4 years) by upgrading current software and equipment while these items are still available; become a partner in a successful regional system and experience the benefits of such; receive grant funds to cover the costs of our immediate needs; Attachment number 1 F -5 Page 51