Ellis COunty Dispatch & 800 Digital

[dgruver911]

Hays Daily News article on County Commission meeting this week....
The Hays Daily News

Talking about cutting 1.5 dispatchers to pay for a new supervisor position (they never replaced the last supervisor who retired 3-4 years ago), concerns about 94% of the calls being handled are "administrative" in nature, and a note that the commission gave approval to move forward with an upgrade to digital 800 for their radio tower on the north edge of Hays.

Just a side note...I think they have 15 dispatchers and handle just over 110,000 calls per year. Harvey County has 13 full-time dispatchers and handles twice that many calls, and yes, about 70% of them can be classified as "administrative." It's just part of the job, I'm not sure you can do much about it. Outgoing calls for resources, calls from upstairs to dispatch an officer to walk-in calls, making phone calls for officers on patrol (some necessary, some not, but it's a very small percentage).

 

[n0lqt]

I think we used to refer to those as "Ghostbuster calls."

"Who ya gonna call.... Ghostbusters!"

 

[factorone]

Last I talked to the Director of EM, they were going to just piggy-back on the state system, but judging by this article, that may not be the case after all. I'll do some diggin' and see what I can come up with.

 

[KAA951]

Last I talked to the Director of EM, they were going to just piggy-back on the state system, but judging by this article, that may not be the case after all. I'll do some diggin' and see what I can come up with.

Actually, this article seems consistent with joining KSICS. They didn't discuss purchasing system controllers etc. as they would need for a stand alone system, simply converting an existing site to P-25. Most larger counties that have joined KSICS for 24/7 use have paid to add additional P-25 sites in their counties for in building coverage. KSICS was originally engineered for street level outside coverage. Counties can contract with KDOT for local system enhancements- as we have seen in Coffey, Leavenworth, Butler and Reno Counties so far (if anyone knows of others, chime in!)

 

[dgruver911]

Update from HDN this week:

The Hays Daily News

It's a $475,000 price tag so they must be replacing their analog repeaters and controllers with digital. Doesn't say anything about it tying to the KSICS ssytem but they'd be crazy not to.

There is a comment, the way I read it, that their next priority is to fund radios to go along with the upgrade. To my knowledge in the past they, like many other counties, have used 9-1-1 funds to pay for subscriber (field) units. You can't do that any more with the recent changes to the 9-1-1 funding legislation. You can use 9-1-1 monies to pay for repeaters, dispatch consoles and control stations, but no mobiles or portables.

 

[factorone]

Update from HDN this week:

The Hays Daily News

It's a $475,000 price tag so they must be replacing their analog repeaters and controllers with digital. Doesn't say anything about it tying to the KSICS ssytem but they'd be crazy not to.

There is a comment, the way I read it, that their next priority is to fund radios to go along with the upgrade. To my knowledge in the past they, like many other counties, have used 9-1-1 funds to pay for subscriber (field) units. You can't do that any more with the recent changes to the 9-1-1 funding legislation. You can use 9-1-1 monies to pay for repeaters, dispatch consoles and control stations, but no mobiles or portables.

Looks like they're going standalone. Looks like the issues encountered by other counties going the simulcast expansion route (Finney, Leavenworth, Butler, etc.) may be a factor, judging by people I've talked to about this over the last week.

 

[dgruver911]

Update on the Dispatch Center...looks like they are continuing to suggest it become a County entity..

The Hays Daily News

 

[factorone]

Update on the Dispatch Center...looks like they are continuing to suggest it become a County entity..

The Hays Daily News

I'll be in Hays this weekend for a wedding, so I'll see if I can hit up Ed Harbin or Bill Ring for some info on all this.