Public Safety (Subcommittee of the City Council)

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES Wednesday May 9, 2012 Taftville Volunteer Fire Department 7:00 P.M. Committee Members Present Alderman Mark Bettencourt Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. Alderwoman Sofee Noblick Administration and Staff Present Alan H. Bergren, City Manager Chief Frank Blanchard, Yantic Fire Department Chief Tim Jencks, Taftville Fire Department Chief Aaron Westervelt, Laurel Hill Fire Department Gene Arters, Director OEM Deputy Chief Bob LaChapelle, Occum Fire Department Patrick Daley, Norwich Police Lieutenant / East Great Plains Fire Department Assistant Chief Paul O’Connell, Yantic Fire Department Lieutenant Raymond Henry, Yantic Fire Department Volunteer/Central Fire Departments and Others Chris LaRose, Norwich Public Utilities Jeremiah Kvasnik, Norwich Public Utilities Ron Stoltz, Yantic Fire Department Dan Auger, Taftville Fire Department Ken Leo, Yantic Fire Department William Hadam, Taftville Fire Department Eric Benoit, Taftville Fire Department Richard Benoit, Taftville Fire Department Tom Ladd, Taftville Fire Department Brandon Rafuse, Taftville Fire Department Dwithg Storms, Taftville Fire Department I. Call to Order – Quorum Alderman Mark Bettencourt called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. It was determined a quorum was present. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of April 11, 2012. Alderman H Tucker Braddock Jr. motioned to approve the April 11, 2012 minutes as amended, seconded by Alderwoman Sofee Noblick. All in favor, the motion passed. III. Correspondence There was none IV. Citizen Comment There was none. V. New Business There was none. Public Safety Meeting Minutes May 9, 2012 Page 2 VI. Old Business a. Taftville FD Addition This is a very big issue and the committee is exploring other options. There are budget issues that make this a very difficult item. It is decided to table this until the next meeting. Dick Benoit feels that the City is dragging its feet. They could’ve had the new building by now. He also reminds the committee that Chief Jencks and the department spent about $4,200 for the blueprints and bids and that was a waste. The bids have now expired. Alderman Mark Bettencourt says he knows this is needed but the Council support is not there. Without a majority vote this will never get off the floor. Chief Jencks reminds the Committee that his electric bill has been and will continue to be excessive but necessary. There will also be time lags in their response time when they need the vehicle but it is blocked by snow. b. Communications Bond Issue Chris LaRose from NPU needs to get together with Josh in Finance to see how to appropriate the funds. There will be a 6 week lag time from the date of ordering the equipment and parts to receiving them. The project should be completed in 5 months (including the lag time for parts). Jeremiah Kvasnik from NPU explains that this is a State Bid process and that tactical has the contract with the State of Connecticut to provide all the tactical equipment. His understanding is that the labor is also covered under the State Contract. There is about $20,000 in network equipment (about $10,000 in network equipment and about $10,000 in network programming for which NPU would most likely use Atrion as their networking consultant). There will be some hardware that needs to be installed at the Police Department and there will be equipment delivered to each repeater site. The Fiber is already at the repeater sites so there will be no additional costs for that. The most important thing is to get the system off the AT&T copper wire system. Once the equipment is in everything will be staged at the tactical office so a systems test can be performed. Then it will simply be a site by site process. After the equipment is ordered it will be about 6 weeks for delivery tactical needs about two weeks to get everything staged and programmed. In a parallel effort, NPU will be working with the networking firm to get the network up and ready so the network is waiting for the equipment. NPU and the networking consultants will be able to monitor the switches and remotely diagnose any issues if anything happens with the network. At each site there will be 1 IP device with a static IP address. This will not have any effect on narrow banding. Public Safety Meeting Minutes May 9, 2012 Page 3  Once it is set up and tested and every department is happy with the service they will do the change from copper to Fiber. NPU will do the most economical pricing after some run time to determine usage amounts. There is not expected to be any lag time and this traffic will have priority. Chief Blanchard asks how the cut-over will work. When it is brought online will it still be possible to change back to the copper lines if needed due to communication problems? He is concerned about changing over before their first big multi-departmental call. It is impossible to test the system as realistically as an actual call. Will the copper still be available until after such a call has been put over the Fiber? Jeremiah states that the change-over will not be permanent until a good test has been done. NPU can monitor the activity for issues during the call and also has the ability to look back over historical data. Atrion is also available 24/7. Alderwoman Noblick asks if it’s possible to do a dry run test to stress the system. Chief Blanchard believes that it is possible to do these tests within Norwich but it would be difficult to simulate an actual major call. He has confidence in the design but believes that the true test of the stress on the system will be during an actual emergency. Alderman Braddock asks if there are any other communities that are doing this in the country. Jeremiah replies that there are a few. Ken Leo believes that a test of the system is a great idea and it could also be cross-department training. Set up a scenario for training and it is also a way to stress the communications system. Chief Blanchard asks the committee if tactical is a DAS vendor for the State, maybe it would be possible to eliminate the bid process which would cut weeks out of the process. City Manager Bergren believes that if you purchase from the DAS then it is like the State bid on the project. It will be looked into. Alderman Bettencourt explains that since the bonding has been approved this project is authorized and can proceed. VII. Other There was none. Public Safety Meeting Minutes May 9, 2012 Page 4 VIII. Adjournment  Alderman H Tucker Braddock Jr. motioned to adjourn, seconded by Alderwoman Sofee Noblick. All in favor the meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted by Christine Averna