East Windsor Public Safety Committee
Regular Meeting – January 24, 2007
Minutes
CALL TO ORDER AND ATTENDANCE
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 p.m. by Co-Chairman Tom Clynch. The following members were present: Andy Ouelette, Gary Mazzone, Gil Hayes, Jonathan Towle, Jim Barton, Ed Endee. Rich Salmon was also present as a representative from the Broad Brook Fire Department.
PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES
Special Meeting – November 29, 2006
The minutes of the Special Meeting of November 29, 2006 were reviewed by all members present.
A motion was made by Gil Hayes, seconded by Gary Mazzone to accept the minutes of the Special Meeting of November 29, 2006 as presented.
Hayes/Mazzone Unanimous
NEW BUSINESS
There was a discussion among the members present as to the exact nature of the Public Safety Committee and what would happen to the committee once the communications system is completed. It was a consensus of all members present that since there will be a change in leadership for the Town of East Windsor that there should be a “wait and see” attitude and to continue with what the committee is doing.
Gil Hayes also brought up the fact that he was no longer our liaison to the Board of Finance and that it would probably be a good idea to have a representative from the Board of Finance appointed to this committee. Mr. Hayes will take care of this matter for the Committee.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A) RADIO PROJECT UPDATE
The following is the update on the Radio Project as presented by Ed Endee at the meeting on January 24th.
1. Some of the equipment has been installed to enable fire paging over the town’s trunking system. The trunked radio that receives paging signals from TN has been installed and interfaced with the 152.0075 paging transmitter at the Town Hall. I am working with Marcus Communications and TN to get the remainder of the work on the TN console and TN remote site completed. The existing paging from the Bald Hill and Soapstone Towers will be maintained for redundancy. TN will also program the console to enable the new EMS paging.
2. The FCC licensing situation continues to be worked on by Marcus Communications. There has been some progress since our last meeting. The APCO frequency coordinator who had been holding up both the Town of Windsor and our licensing submissions has been more cooperative regarding the Windsor licensing. The town continues to operate on an STA (Special Temporary Authorization) from the FCC.
3. The majority of the items on the punch list have been corrected by Marcus Communications. We have received complete system documentation.
4. The speaker/mike moisture problem is still being investigated by the manufacturer. This problem has been present since the issuance of the speaker/mikes. I have informed Marcus Communications that this is totally unacceptable and that a solution must be presented ASAP.
5. I am still working on the operations manual and hope to have it completed soon.
6. The radio ID function for the Dispatch Direct talk group is now enabled at the EWPD Dispatch Center. This will allow all users of the system to communicate directly with the dispatcher to report emergencies or request assistance. It is intended to be used for emergencies only. It is also used for the emergency button function on EWPD radios. A protocol for use of this talk group will be developed and distributed to all users of the system.
7. Although I was told that the CIP (Capitol Improvements Project) funds for radio communications had not been approved for F/Y 2006-2007, I found out that there is $30,000 in the fund. This was reduced from a request of $45,000.00. There is not enough funding to add a channel to the system as originally intended. However, the funds could be used too augment user equipment that is needed and to address paging issues for the Fire Departments.
8. Of the $39,000 operating budget for communications, $24,883 remains. This budget line item was established to cover costs for utilities at the main and Town Hall sites. These consist of electricity, telephone and propane for the standby generator at the main site and telephone at the town hall site. This money is also intended to cover replacement portable radio batteries, maintenance issues related to the town’s radios not covered under the system warranty and a service contract on the standby generator at the main site.
After Mr. Endee presented his report, there was a discussion among the members of the committee present and the representatives from the Warehouse Point and Broad Brook Fire Departments regarding alpha vs. numeric pagers. It was felt by some of the members of the Fire Department that the alpha pagers might be the better of the choices. Mr. Endee will look into the cost of the two different types of pagers, if the alpha pagers can be integrated into the new radio system and what the cost for same would be and he will report back to the committee at a later date.
ADJOURNMENT
Being that there was no additional business to come before the committee at this time at motion was made by Gary Mazzone, seconded by Andy Ouelette to adjourn the regular meeting of the East Windsor Public Safety Committee at 7:52 p.m.
Mazzone/Ouelette Unanimous
THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE FEBRUARY 28TH AT 7:00 P.M. AT THE PARK HILL COMMUNITY HALL.
Respectfully submitted,
Darlene H. Kelly
Recording Secretary
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