BC 2010 12 06 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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December 6, 2010 (Work Session) Pa ge additional equipment to hook Concord's and Kannapolis's systems into our 911 telephone system —so we are all working with the same equipment, but working out of three different locations. The equipment will be purchased as soon as the State gives us permission. The next step is to work on the actual analog radio system itself. As you know with technology, everything is going digital. Motorola has informed us as well as the City of Concord and the City of Kannapolis that the system has to be updated because they are no longer going to make the parts and they only plan to provide support for a couple of years. If one of our existing parts were to go down, it could be a while before a replacement could be found, if at all. However, we are moving towards the new system. Approximately, two (2) years ago, the Board funded the transition all of our analog radios to digital radios. The radios have been purchased and are approximately 99 percent complete at a cost that was a little in excess of $1 million dollars. The radios we have now are operating on the analog system, but will be converted to the digital system. Currently, the system is housed at Station Three in Concord and the City of Kannapolis and Cabarrus County are members of that system and we pay an annual fee to participate. 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