captain_crash911
Member
As expected, council authorized the fire department to proceed with the process of getting a new mobile communications system May 9.
After looking over various reports done on the current radio system back in 2001, council came to the conclusion that it needed to be replaced and allotted money for the next two years to achieve it.
The new system will be similar to the system recently acquired by Belleville Police. The new police system has already proven its value and effectiveness and seemed the logical choice for the fire department. By using similar Motorola equipment and towers, the two departments can share costs and be able to communicate much more easily as they are just on different frequencies. Another perk will be that if for some reason the dispatch at the police department cannot be utilized, the fire dispatch centre could be easily configured to service the police and vice versa.
“There is still the possibility of the integration of dispatch,” Chief Administrative Officer Stephen Hyndman said. “We do not want to put our emergency services at risk.”
Hyndman addressed in his report to council that operational issues such as dispatch have not been addressed in any of the prior studies. For now each department will have their own dispatch centre but with the thoughts of cost savings a joint dispatch centre could be considered. However, there has been no consideration given to where a suitable physical location for the joint centre would be. These considerations to be discussed are expected to take place in context with the Fire Master Plan implementation which will occur over the next few years.
“I’m glad to see this,” Councillor George Beer said. “There will be no dead spots because of distance from the city or inside of buildings.”
After looking over various reports done on the current radio system back in 2001, council came to the conclusion that it needed to be replaced and allotted money for the next two years to achieve it.
The new system will be similar to the system recently acquired by Belleville Police. The new police system has already proven its value and effectiveness and seemed the logical choice for the fire department. By using similar Motorola equipment and towers, the two departments can share costs and be able to communicate much more easily as they are just on different frequencies. Another perk will be that if for some reason the dispatch at the police department cannot be utilized, the fire dispatch centre could be easily configured to service the police and vice versa.
“There is still the possibility of the integration of dispatch,” Chief Administrative Officer Stephen Hyndman said. “We do not want to put our emergency services at risk.”
Hyndman addressed in his report to council that operational issues such as dispatch have not been addressed in any of the prior studies. For now each department will have their own dispatch centre but with the thoughts of cost savings a joint dispatch centre could be considered. However, there has been no consideration given to where a suitable physical location for the joint centre would be. These considerations to be discussed are expected to take place in context with the Fire Master Plan implementation which will occur over the next few years.
“I’m glad to see this,” Councillor George Beer said. “There will be no dead spots because of distance from the city or inside of buildings.”
