Title
Fire Station Alerting Systems (NB)
This item requests that the City Commission authorize the City Manager to negotiate a contract to replace the current Fire Station Alerting system.
Explanation
In July 2005 the Insurance Services Office, Inc. informed the City Manager's office of the results of its 2004 Public Protection Classification survey for the City of Gainesville. This survey is completed once each 10 years and is used to assign the fire insurance rating for the jurisdiction. Gainesville previously maintained a class 3 rating which requires a score of 70%. The 2004 survey resulted in a total credit of 66.47% with a deficit of 3.53%. The ISO allows municipalities to maintain their current rating if they are able to identify a plan to upgrade their services to achieve the required credit. A component of the survey, “Receiving and Handling Fire Alarms” includes “Credit for Dispatch Circuits” for radio paging systems, also called station alerting systems. Gainesville Fire Rescue currently relies on an antiquated VHF station alerting system that has no monitoring system for circuit integrity. The station alerting system received 6.15% out of a possible 10.00%. Upgrading the station alerting system will result in a gain of 3.85% and will provide sufficient credit for ISO to maintain a Public Protection Classification of 3 for the City of Gainesville. Additionally, the current station alerting system provides sequential dispatching of units, one at a time, requiring up to 60 seconds to page multiple stations and units, while an upgraded station alerting system that will integrate with Gainesville Regional Utilities' 800 MHz Motorola Trunked Radio System (TRS) will allow simultaneous paging of units thereby reducing the amount of time required to deliver services to the community. In February 2006, the City Commission approved the designation of funds from the Capital Improvement Revenue Bond Series 2005 to purchase an upgraded station al...
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