East Central Region Governance Meeting
October 23, 2009
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Agenda
Location: Map Room – Platte Co. Courthouse (basement), 2610 14th Street, Columbus, NE
Chair: Bob Carey, Polk County Sheriffs Office
Co-Chair: Terry Miller, Saunders County
Secretary/Treasurer: Tim Hofbauer, Platte County
I. Review of the Open Meeting Law - the open meetings Law was noted for the meeting participants.
II. Roll Call of Counties Present:
Present: Boone, Howard, Platte, Polk, Saunders, Butler-Seward, Dodge,
Not Present: Nance, Colfax
III. Review of the Minutes of 9/18/09 Meeting and vote to accept
a. Howard, seconded by Saunders
IV. IPW December 8th 2 reps from EC Region – Two representatives needed to attend – Terry Miller and Tim Hofbauer will attend. January 27th is the second part of this meeting. NEMA provides lodging for 60 miles plus. Attendees need to RSVP by Nov 2, 2009. No regional exercises have occurred yet. Tim requests that any county exercised that have occurred be sent to him for inclusion.
V. 2008 and 2009 Work plan
a. On 10/22/09 Tim sent out a spreadsheet regarding the 2008 Workplan which is still in flux. Nothing submitted yet for the interop work enhancement.
b. $34,000 was left over - GMS was approved by Nikki to be put into a lump sum that can be accessed later. Tim suggests this be used for projects that are submitted for Merrick and Polk counties who have submitted invoices for $5000. There are some 2007 funds that he would like to use for Platte County.
i. There is $10000 left in Platte County on 2006 funds, so Tim is hoping to set aside these funds for Interop communications projects that yet have to be completed. The incomplete projects are the 1) wireless point to point costs may be way more than thought - 13 to 14 end points in the region, 2) black boxes ($110,000) and (3) and mutual aid overlay expenses. Tim is trying to use previous years funds so 2008 funds are not compromised. Left over funds may be able to be used for narrow banding.
ii. Tim wants to narrowband and does not want to move ahead until these costs are known. The reprogramming to narrowbanding is costly, and licensing must be done before that happens which is both costly and time consuming. Licensing fees must be paid for out of budgets rather than the HS funding – the fee is $50 -$200 for the licensing fee Also, this must be coordinated regionally in order not to lose communication. Counties in the region need to work together to reprogram and re-tune repeaters and reflectors. There needs to be a targeted time and begin to do this now as to avoid the rush when others are also trying to get this done,
iii. Need to coordinate the licensing with the FCC which is same process as what has been done before.
iv. Each Fire Department will have to be visited to assess the equipment needs. Employees are still carrying pagers, and there is confusion on whether these pagers need to be replaced or not, some of them are up to 10 years old. Tim believes that there may be a delay in the requirements due to the short amount of time to complete a great deal of work.
v. GeoCom is putting out confusing messages and want to do an audit and an interop study.
1. PSAP’s need to have these done or $8000 daily fine after 2013.
2. if you are preprogramming, Tim suggests to do it all at one time for mutual aid overlay plan.
Tim is trying to plan to get all of the projects complete at the lowest cost and still do all of the projects necessary for each county. 2007 funds may be returned by Boone County.
2007 Paid out: 1) Merrick county project $13,483 - 2) $35,745 – EOC kits; 3) $9,230 Howard County; Polk County project $51,249; POE – Butler County projects.
VI. Update on NEMA and NCOR/NWIN Meetings
NCOR – discussion with the RFP process went into executive session - venders were excluded during the discussion. One important issue for discussion was the end points - cable in a box in a facility that will connect the end points. Mike Jefferies states that there are only 2 -3 end points on a region. A question is which county gets the equipment and at what speed? They are not sure that all of this equipment is needed by everyone. Need to make this available to all. Decided to create redundancy in all of the area, and that they will make the capability go through each region and from there break out into the PSAP’s. Also need redundant links throughout the region to reduce down time – decided capability accessible throughout each region. Paraclete sites are going to get decided first. The RFP was changed to fit these new decisions.
i. This is why Tim is trying to get the funds set aside to conserve the funds.
ii. Tim is going to be on the Evaluation committee for the RFP; winning vender is going to have to pay for a study on each tower and come with an alternate plan to address; RFP states it has to be recent licensed equipment.
b. NWIN – This was updated in terms of the NCOR Meeting.
c. Governor’s kickoff of the network in Scottsbluff went off very well. There were several areas that did
VII. Update of Regional Communications Build Out
a. Black boxes –Training is near completion and will be coming out – there are questions to Hal on this such as who is going to make the connections for these and is software going to be available; who will do the training? Is there a need for an MOU necessary? Radios can be linked but are there times when equipment could be seized for communications if necessary and where are the permissions. Platte and Colfax counties may need additional equipment.
b. Environmental study done waiting for license – may have to use 2008 funding for Boone County
c. Saunders – completed
d. Merrick - Completed
e. Dodge – Emergency Management does not do this the same way – they claim all is under control. Tony says there are 2 systems – redundant costs not efficiently managed. No MOU’s are warranted according to police-sheriffs offices.
f. Rick – David City – frequency and weather needs to clear up to finish the study.
g. Howard – Jackie stated they do not take care of 911 – they are in new building
h. Boone County - complete
VIII. Sustainability of Regional Interoperability Assets
a. Template letter for County Commissioners (Requires vote)
i. Bob Carey drafted a letter for county commissioners to address regional Interoperability Assets. Easiest way to do this is to have a line item of $1500 annually and if not used will go back to general fund. Tim will put this on letterhead, with changes of Bob Carey for the Governing Board for signing, and Tim will send it out electronically to the group. Carey suggests that a short presentation accompany this information
ii. Tim discusses county self maintenance as a danger as the region would be at risk, so it is best to have these agreements in place; The billing will work so that the affected county pays for the equipment replacement/repair and then bills the other counties. Those counties that wish to pay for it outright may decide to pay for this on their own.
iii. There may be a key point in a county in which the equipment is not maintained which could bring the whole system down including the redundancy for the state.
iv. A mutual aid system and the microwave system is going to have to be maintained out of this funding. Once the $1500 gets into a county budget line item it will carry through and if not spent can return to the general fund.
v. Could have spare parts available that could be used for necessary repairs.
vi. Nance County – Carey will ask his county board members for advice to address this issue. Need to be able to access the system, as they are a PSAP. The contract is going to be issued in December, so a decision needs to be addressed. If a county chooses not to submit their plans, is grounds to refuse funding. Carey will take another person with him to discuss this with the board. NEMA accepts that there will be counties who may not participate in this process.
IX. State Updates
a. Planning Exercise and Training
i. IPW Stuff and EPW coming up in January. NCOR meeting is scheduled.
X. Public Comment-
a. Discussion as to counties not participating. Suggestion made that all items be put on the agenda for discussion.
XI. Reports
a. Grant Award Notice (GAN) for the East Central Region – Was discussed and signed for East Central region.
XII. Other
a. ATAP Great Plains Chapter is in operation, and will have the 2nd meeting on December 18th to include a short business meeting and a training component.
b. SWOT in a box – 3 meetings in each region – there will be the opportunity to have three meetings in the region to gather information for planning. The intent is to help out the PET regions in overall planning.
XIII. Roll Call of Counties Present
a. Boone, Howard, Platte, Polk, Saunders, Butler-Seward, Dodge,
b. Nance, Colfax
XIV. Upcoming meetings
a. Nov 30, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
A Motion to Adjourn was made by Howard County and seconded by Merrick County. Motion carries..