HomeMy WebLinkAboutE911Minutes_2010_04_15East Central Communications Council Meeting
Auxiliary Room
April 15, 2010
8:30am
Board members present: Dennis Falken(County Commission), Mike McClemans(City Council), and Jeff
Weldon(City Manager).
Others present: Todd Struwe(Emergency Mgmt.), Jeff Miller(BPD), Mark Stratton(Communications),
Darrell Hartmann(Fire Dept), Bob Hill (Zoning), and Rita Thompson(City Finance Dept.).
Members Absent: Al Gregg (County Commission) and Marty Stanwick (So).
Call to order: Meeting called to order by Dennis Falken
Addition to the Agenda: Vonage, Bullberry, and Pictomerty.
Bills: Rita went over each line item in the budget. She mentioned there was a budget amendment made
for the server. It was more than expected. Falken stated this board approves the non recurring bill. Falken
likes the reports that Rita provided but if she could have a print out of the non recurring bills on the front of
the report so the board can approve Mike McClemans/ Jeff Weldon moved to approve the minutes of
the January 21, 2010 meeting. All present voted aye. Motion approved.
Old Business:
MDT’s/Justice Lite: Miller thought the MDT’s were covered for 2 years under a grant for data
max and the air time, except the grant money ran out. It would cost $7,000 for data max and
$4000 for the air time to use the MDT’s until the end of the year and has no room in his
budget. At the present time there is no pursuit in Justice Lite because of the money and we
aren’t utilizing the MDT’s like he thought. Weldon asked how many MDT’s do we have and
how did we pay for them. Miller stated that we have six MDT’s and they were paid through a
grant. He is under the impression that Sherriff Stanwick is going to maintain their MDT’s in the
SO’s cars. Falken stated with Justice Lite officers could do reports and run checks in the patrol
cars and now without the data max or the air time these computers are now just a notebook.
They are still usable just not what they were intended for. Miller stated that the MDT’s were
not getting used some officers weren’t comfortable doing reports in the cars which caused him
to revaluate the whole program. Falken stated that maybe the reason was because the old
system was on the MDT’s which isn’t’ as fast or user friendly as Justice Lite would be. Having
Justice Lite on the MDT’s would make it so the officer wouldn’t have to jump screens and
could run checks a lot faster. If Justice Lite was on the MDT’s making it faster to get
information maybe the officers would use it more.
Bullberry: Thompson mentioned that the Bullberry is scheduled to be installed for the 26th of
April.
Pictometry: Falken gave an update and should be starting sometime in June.
New Business:
Legislative update for 911 Services: Flaken gave an update on the legislative rules for 911
services. There were some problems with the bill that got introduced to the legislator with the
smaller communities fighting about the two person rule. How it ended up at the end of the
session was a new bill was introduced stating if you chose not to take part in the two person
rule you will not see any increase in the surcharge money when it goes up if they don’t have
two dispatchers on 24/7. Dispatch centers will still have to comply with all the other rules and
would have to be approved by the 911 committee. The legislative committee is working on
defining what the alternative methods are but one alternative would be to send the over flow
911 calls to another agency. This would take effect 2013. Stratton stated that right now if we
have an overflow of 911 calls they are routed over to the sheriff’s office. Falken says that is
unacceptable for the new 911 guidelines. Falken mentioned we will need to hire a couple more
people to meet the new 911 rule. We can also look at other counties to join our PSAPS. If we
chose not to hire two more people we will have to look at having our overflow 911 calls routed
somewhere else like Minnehaha and there would be a price getting them all our maps and
what not. So there are a lot of things we need to look at and have more discussi ons about
before 2013.
Falken talked about the reporting requirement for the PSAPS . We have to report the
surcharge money is getting spent correctly. We could say we spend all our surcharge money
on salaries. Thompson stated it is all done on the internet and they want detail. She assumes
the county has to do the quarterly reporting on the surcharge money because the county
collects that money. The county will have to report county’s budget as I will do for the city’s
2009 because of the separate budgets in 09’.
Vonage: Miller received a letter from Entrado regarding Vonage. Vonage (VOIP) is a voice-
over internet connection. Miller is unsure if we are obligated to provide this service. Miller
questioned what the cost would be, or if a surcharge would be ensued from Vonage or
Entrado for providing the 911 connection. Falken assumed they would pay the access charge
for the voiceover on the internet. Falken suggested Miller visit with the Rapid City or Sioux
Falls Police Departments to see how they are using this. Miller stated it seems we have an
obligation to provide.
Rural Fire Department Communication Issues: Falken shared some concerns about the Bruce
Fire Department’s communication with Brookings, especially vehicle to vehicle
communication. Hartman explained much of the miscommunication is related to topography
and how Bruce sits down in a ‘hole’. Sioux Falls has a tower 3 miles north of Brookings, and
is exploring to see if this tower will give the county better coverage. A county-wide test has
been completed with this tower and initially it is a superior location, however Hartmann has not
seen the final results of the test. Sioux Falls Two-Way Radio or Vantek is willing to lease the
tower site. Hartmann has worked with the Bruce Fire Dept. and helped them realize that if
they communicate radio to radio (Symplex ) it will work better for them rather than trying to
bounce a signal from a hole to a tower and back to them again. Cost of leasing the tower site
is unknown as well as relicensing and relocating an existing tower, along with FAA approval.
Falken stated the Bruce Fire Department is getting their pages it’s they can’t communicate to
each other.
Member Reports
Bob Hill mentioned they mapped Sunny View.
Darrell Hartman he wants to have discussions with dispatch on texting fire calls.
Falken mentioned that next month we will talk about the budget. Weldon stated that we will
work on the operating budget and the capital and bring it to this board next month.
Weldon suggested putting the 2 person rule on the May meeting agenda.
The next meeting is set for May 20, 2010 at 8:30am
Regular quarterly meetings are held in January, April, July, and October on the 3rd
Thursday of the month. Discussion of the budget is held in May.
Adjournment
Submitted by Chris Larson