Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee Meeting

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Department of Safety and Homeland Security Conference Room

Dover, DE 19901

Members Present: Members Absent:

Mayor Carlton Carey, Sr. – League ofWilliam Carrow – DE Police Chief’s Council

Local GovernmentJames Cole – DTI

Jennifer Dittman - DEMATimothy Sexton - DPH

Gene Donaldson – DelDOTJoseph Dudlek - DOC

Colin T. Faulkner – KentCountyGreg Patterson – Office of Governor

Warren Jones - DVFADave Roberts – New CastleCounty

Kevin Neilson – Public Service CommissionJoe Thomas, SussexCounty

Louis Schiliro – Secretary, DSHSEric Wagner – City of Wilmington

Col. Dallas Wingate – DE National Guard

Alternates Present:Additional Attendees:

Richard Pounsberry – DOCTim Dobrowolski - DivComm

William F. Streets – New CastleCountyMark Grubb - DivComm

Tom Kadunce - DivComm

Beth Moran - DEMA

Kevin Sipple – KentCountyEOC

Joe Wessels - Consultant

Agenda:

Welcoming Remarks: Secretary Schiliro

Approval of Meeting Minutes from Previous Meetings-

A motion was made by Bill Streets to accept the minutes from February and April as written. The motion was seconded by Warren Jones which passed unanimously.

Subcommittee Updates

Operations – Gene Donaldson, DelDOT

BDA Opt Out Memo

A letter was drafted to notify building owners that their building did not meet the minimum coverage required for emergency radio communications and the possible risk to life, property and the local environment. It confirms the owner’s decision to opt out of the installation of a BDA for coverage enhancement, but affords them the opportunity to have further discussions regarding the installation. The letter has been reviewed and approved by Tom Ellis, AG for the DSHS. After discussion regarding the liabilities involved and reiterating that the VRS equipment will also enhance coverage, a motion was made by Gene Donaldson to accept the letter as drafted which was seconded by Mayor Carey and passed unanimously.

Technical – Mark Grub for Jim Cole, DTI

Broadband for Public Safety Update – Mark Grubb

A letter was received by the NGA inviting state representatives to a broadband summit at the end of June, Mark Grubb and Kurt Reuther will be attending. One of the next steps is to engage a consultant (RCC) to do a needs assessment for Delaware. We are looking at funding through the IECGP grant. Jennifer Dittman informed there is a time constraint as the deadline is September 30, 2013 in order to utilize the IECGP grant for the needs assessment. MACINAC (Mid Atlantic Consortium for Interoperable Nationwide Advanced Communications) is looking for a regional approach. First Net is the Governing Body that will be formed to implement the broadband spectrum allocated to public safety by congress. They will not be formed until August 22, 2012 and therefore rules regarding how nationwide broadband is to be implemented will not be available until well after that date.

Training and Exercise – Bill Streets for Dave Roberts, New CastleCounty

No report

Scheduled Business Meeting

800 MHz System Update – Tom Kadunce

Coverage testing was repeated for the Harrington Casino and DoverHigh School due to new construction. Mark Grubb reiterated that any coverage concerns should be brought to the attention of DivComm to investigate.

Mark Grubb reported that the Claymont tower site was purchased from Bill Windsor for $880,000. Clearwire and TTM are current tenants on the tower. The State will pay WindsorTower leasing 50% of the revenues generated from these tenants for the next 10 years.

Secretary Schiliro stated that he would like to see an agenda item for the next meeting to review the tower usage.

700 MHz System Update – Tom Kadunce

Progress Update and Power Point Presentation

Tom Kadunce gave a power point presentation on the status of the 700 MHz System and showed a comparison between the previous limitations of DOC and the enhanced capabilities that the implementation of the 700MHz system now provides for their agency.

The Department of Corrections went from a single channel conventional system using repeaters for extended coverage to a trunked system with multiple channels using tower sites to receive and transmit calls. The correctional facilities now have improved coverage both internally and externally, interoperability with first responders and are able to utilize state of the art system usage tools.

Secretary Schiliro commended Tom Kadunce and the Division of Communications for the outstanding quality of service and procurement of Federal funding to correct the long-standing communications issues for the Department of Corrections.

BDA Update – Tim Dobrowolski

Progress Update

Task Order 7 has 22 buildings that have been approved. Six have opted to have the BDAs installed so we will proceed with those installations. All other building owners will receive the opt-out letter that was approved by the SIEC.

DivComm will follow-up with those owners, which will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

A list of the next 22 buildings for consideration (TO #8) will be brought to the next SIEC meeting for consideration.

Rebanding Update – Tom Kadunce/John Tillinghast (RCC Consulting)

Update

New CastleCounty is complete. The DTC code plugs are complete. DelDOT had 22 yards to complete. Right now we’re moving through KentCounty and starting on SussexCounty, starting with visits to the fire companies.

Narrowbanding Update – Tom Kadunce

Letters were mailed out for Narrowbanding, which resulted in 6 cancelations. Fire Paging is scheduled to narrowband the first week of October.

Exacom Update – Tom Kadunce

Funding and Scheduling

DEMA is looking to use grant funds for the software upgrade. It will cost $50,000 for a one-time fee. We are waiting for the business case study to be completed by DTI before we can get an approval for grant funds. We need to consider how we will handle future software upgrades. Kevin Sipple stated that when the PSAPs had their own recorders they had to pay $10,000 per year for their software maintenance. Only the main PSAPS switched over to the Exacom recording system. There currently is no statewide recording system for all the PSAPs. Prior to switching over, they could not record on talk channels. Itwas agreed that there is an advantage to keeping the system we have with Exacom. The City of Dover wants to switch over to Exacom but will wait until the software upgrade is complete.

New Business

SCIP Workshop – Mark Grubb

The 2012 SCIP Workshop is scheduled for May 23rd from 8:30 to 3:30pm.

The workshop will be held at the FireSchool. If you have not received an invitation, please let Maria Fry know.

The committee was in agreement to cancel the next meeting scheduled for June 14th due to scheduling conflicts. Tim Dobrowolski agreed that it was okay for the Task Order 8 buildings to wait until the July meeting.

The next scheduled meeting will be held on Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 9am.

The meeting adjourned at 10:18 am.

Respectfully submitted,Maria A. Fry

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