City of Oak Creek

Common Council Report

Meeting Date:  April 3, 2006

Item No.:        

Recommendation:  That the Common Council approve the purchase of Motorola radio equipment and related costs to facilitate the conversion of the Fire Department communications to the County’s 800 MHz trunking system.

Background:  This purchase is being requested to assist the Fire Department in providing improved communications and operational safety. The purchase of the equipment and related costs further supports interoperability for emergency communications with our surrounding mutual aid communities as well as our Police and other city departments. The Fire Department is the last of the City department to make this conversion primarily due to the fiscal impact of a concerted move by the County fire service community.  The fire service move to the 800 MHz radio band has begun and many communities in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties have already taken the necessary steps initiated with grants from the Department of Homeland Security.

The Fire Department has been in need of an upgrade in communications for some time. The current radio base station equipment is approximately twenty-five years old and in the 2004 budget we requested funds for a new radio base station repeater. Furthermore, the current dispatch radio channel communications has become unmanageable during peak times, i.e. a structure fire and concurrent incidents, in our neighboring communities which prompted that request – there are 7 communities utilizing the same dispatch channel. The 800 MHz trunking system allows for several areas of improvement, i.e. our own operating channels for emergency response and firefighter safety, training, interoperability with mutual aid companies, and improved incident command communications with all agencies.  The purchase will cover equipment and related costs for mobile, portable and base station equipment at the Dispatch Center and the fire stations.

The funding for this move comes from 3 sources.  The Department of Homeland Security through the Office of Justice Assistance (OJA) has funded money through a grant to prime the move to the 800 MHz radio band.  Furthermore for the 2006 budget year, the Fire Department anticipated the conversion to the 800 MHz band by making a CIP request.  The final source is from the (VHF) base station repeater funds which we delayed until a fire service decision was made to move to the 800 MHz band on the County level.

Fiscal Impact: The total cost to purchase the radio equipment and associated costs of programming and installation is $219,450.36

The funding is coming from three sources:

1) $108,450.36 is OJA grant money

2) $75,000.00 is budgeted money from the 2006 800 MHz radio (CIP Account 06023 )

3) $36,000 is money that was budgeted for an upgrade of our current radio (VHF) system (CIP Account 04007)

Prepared by: Thomas Jonson Fire Lieutenant	Respectfully submitted, Patrick DeGrave City Administrator
Approved by: Brian Satula Fire Chief
Fiscal Review by: Beverly A. Buretta, CMC City Clerk