Ridgeland upgrading communication system for statewide connection
by ANTHONY WARREN Sun Staff Writer
Northsidesun 11/04/10
FOR POLICE officers in Ridgeland, briefly losing radio contact at certain spots along Old Canton Road will soon be a thing of the past.
In fact, officers in Madison and Ridgeland will soon be able to communicate with dispatchers and city personnel from anywhere in the state.
The cities are finishing up work on upgrades that will allow the departments to tie in to the new statewide communication system.
“They are doing the testing as we speak,” said Ken Craft, supervisor of communications and detention with the Ridgeland Police Department. “We have put up the antenna, and the microwave receivers are in place and operating.”
In addition to getting the system ready to tie in to the Mississippi Wireless Integrated Network (MSWIN), the department is also making several upgrades to the call center.
As part of MSWIN, Mississippi is erecting communication towers across the state, including one locally at Lake Cavalier. That’s the one the Ridgeland and Madison police departments will be connecting to, Kent said.
The Ridgeland department is bringing in new equipment like computers and monitors, as well as new furniture for dispatchers to use while on duty.
The center is also being relocated to another room at headquarters, which will feature a 12-inch raised floor, to allow technicians easier access to wiring when making upgrades.
Ridgeland’s dispatch center was last updated in 1999. “With the changes in the room, we can easily reconfigure things when we bring in new equipment,” Kent said.
Madison Police Chief Gene Waldrop said the upgrades at his department’s call center should be completed in three or four weeks. He’s pleased with the improvements, because they will allow the department to better communicate with other agencies outside the city of Madison.
“We want to be interoperable with other agencies,” he said, adding another point. “With this technology, we can be here and talk to our team members on the coast in disaster response mode.”
According to Gov. Haley Barbour’s Web site, the system was created under the direction of the governor “after Hurricane Katrina exposed a critical need for agencies to communicate efficiently.”
The system is being built with $157 million in federal funds and another $57 million in state bond dollars. “The MSWIN system is currently fully operational in the southern third of the state and is scheduled to be completed throughout the entire state” by the end of the year in 2011, according to Barbour’s Web site.
The second phase of the project includes building towers in 52 sites, primarily in central Mississippi. The third phase will include an additional 47 sites in the upper third of the state.
Documents provided by the city of Ridgeland show that the project will cost the city about $375,000 initially. However, once the improvements are made, the city will save approximately $46,000 a year on communication costs.
Right now, the city leases five high-speed communications lines from AT and T. The city forks over more than $35,000 a year to Motorola for maintenance services. Tower rental costs Ridgeland taxpayers another $7,750 a year, and electricity runs another $3,200.
Once the new system is in place, Ridgeland Police Chief Jimmy Houston said those costs will be cut in half. Costs for installing the system include adding three new consoles to the dispatch center, as well as new software and programming to make police radios compatible with the state system. Ridgeland is using grant and drug seizure money to fund the project.
The city of Madison is also spending a sizeable amount, approximately $360,000, to make the improvements, said Waldrop. The city received a grant to build the antenna, which dropped the city’s out-of-pocket expenses by about $100,000.
Both departments say communication services will not be interrupted as officials work to bring the systems online.
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Keep an eye on that one. Hopefully it's neighbors list will be growing over the next few weeks. IIRC there should be around a dozen new sites (phase 2B) going into wide area trunking by years end.
