City of Oak Creek

Common Council Report

 

Meeting Date:  March 15, 2005

 

Item No.:         12

 

Recommendation:  That the Common Council approve the purchase of 52 Motorola Minitor IV pagers and related equipment from Milwaukee 2-Way, Inc.  The total cost is $28,169.

 

Background:  The Fire Department budgeted $34,000 in 2005 for the purchase of pagers and related equipment.  The Fire Department was utilizing an earlier model of this same alerting system prior to the start of the combined Police-Fire Dispatch Center.  Due to the addition of personnel, age of the pagers and the availability of parts, the Fire Department elected to try alpha-numeric pagers as a replacement for the previous system.  The alpha-numeric pagers proved to be inadequate for our operational needs.  The firefighters using them missed calls from weak volume and having only one tone-out, especially at night time hours.  Firefighters also lost the ability to monitor the radio transmissions on the dispatch radio frequency that would advise them of any updates while en route to the emergency.  The current process of alerting utilizes a type written message that increases the amount of time that it takes the communicator to notify off duty personnel.

 

The Fire Department identified only two Milwaukee Metropolitan area vendors who could provide the department with the level of service we need.  There are a number of on-line mail order services that provide this item but will not be able to provide us with local repair service.  The quotes came from Milwaukee 2-way and TV-3 and both include a five year factory warranty.  Milwaukee 2-Way was able to meet all the specifications and was the lowest bidder, as shown below.

 

Milwaukee 2-Way, Inc.

$28,169

TV3 Communications

$28,667

 

Fiscal Impact:  The total funds of $28,169 will come from the Fire Department’s 2005 Capital Equipment Project #05011.

 

Prepared by:

 

 

Tom Jonson

Fire Lieutenant

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Barbara S. Blumenfield, Ph.D

City Administrator

 

 

Approved by:

 

 

Gerard R. Hammernik

Fire Chief

Fiscal Review by:

 

 

Beverly A. Buretta, CMC

City Clerk