Oneida & Herkimer dispatch

[KE2BJW]

Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. and Herkimer County Chairman Vincent J. Bono announced today that their counties are exploring consolidating their Emergency 911 services into one dispatch system.
“I have long been a proponent of consolidation and we have implemented many practices in Oneida County that have improved efficiency and saved our taxpayers money,” Picente said. “Bringing Utica, Rome and New Hartford into our county 911 system was a major success and adding Herkimer County into the fold would greatly improve the emergency services of our region. This measure would alleviate the impact of the critical shortage in the telecommunicator workforce, reduce cost and increase the safety for all of our residents.”
“Herkimer and Oneida counties are not unlike many other government and private entities when it comes to the shortage of employees for vital services,” Bono said. “Recently, both counties have made mention of short staffing in their 911 centers and have identified the critical need to explore consolidation efforts in this area. Herkimer County looks forward to working with our neighbors in Oneida County to investigate what can be done in this field. Looking at all aspects of 911 center operations, and how both governments can provide efficient, safe and effective service for their residents should be explored now more than ever.”
The counties have had preliminary meetings to discuss the feasibility of consolidating their 911 dispatching services and are actively evaluating the process. Officials believe several factors would contribute to a smooth transition including:

• Their shared geographical boarder.
• Several police and fire agencies and ambulance services already covering areas in both counties.
• The ability to share information via the internet, microwave radio systems, fiber optics and mobile devices. (Herkimer County currently has radio equipment installed on an Oneida County tower in the Town of Steuben).
• Technology that permits emergency call processing and dispatching to take place virtually, but remain local to reflect the needs of the public and first responders.

Exclusive Oneida County features would be available to Herkimer County residents if 911 services are combined including:

• 911 texting ability.
• The local first responder communication notification system known as IamResponding.
• The Nurse Navigation program which diverts non-emergency calls to licensed nurses to ease the burden on dispatch services.
• A backup 911 Center.

Bringing Herkimer County into Oneida County’s 911 system would be supported by monthly phone, cell phone and VOIP surcharges and shared services grants would be available through the New York State. A combined dispatch center of this nature would be a first in the state.
Oneida County absorbed the 911 systems of the City of Rome in 1997, the Town of New Hartford in 2010 and the City of Utica in 2012.

 

[Joshuascanner2021]

Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. and Herkimer County Chairman Vincent J. Bono announced today that their counties are exploring consolidating their Emergency 911 services into one dispatch system.
“I have long been a proponent of consolidation and we have implemented many practices in Oneida County that have improved efficiency and saved our taxpayers money,” Picente said. “Bringing Utica, Rome and New Hartford into our county 911 system was a major success and adding Herkimer County into the fold would greatly improve the emergency services of our region. This measure would alleviate the impact of the critical shortage in the telecommunicator workforce, reduce cost and increase the safety for all of our residents.”
“Herkimer and Oneida counties are not unlike many other government and private entities when it comes to the shortage of employees for vital services,” Bono said. “Recently, both counties have made mention of short staffing in their 911 centers and have identified the critical need to explore consolidation efforts in this area. Herkimer County looks forward to working with our neighbors in Oneida County to investigate what can be done in this field. Looking at all aspects of 911 center operations, and how both governments can provide efficient, safe and effective service for their residents should be explored now more than ever.”
The counties have had preliminary meetings to discuss the feasibility of consolidating their 911 dispatching services and are actively evaluating the process. Officials believe several factors would contribute to a smooth transition including:

• Their shared geographical boarder.
• Several police and fire agencies and ambulance services already covering areas in both counties.
• The ability to share information via the internet, microwave radio systems, fiber optics and mobile devices. (Herkimer County currently has radio equipment installed on an Oneida County tower in the Town of Steuben).
• Technology that permits emergency call processing and dispatching to take place virtually, but remain local to reflect the needs of the public and first responders.

Exclusive Oneida County features would be available to Herkimer County residents if 911 services are combined including:

• 911 texting ability.
• The local first responder communication notification system known as IamResponding.
• The Nurse Navigation program which diverts non-emergency calls to licensed nurses to ease the burden on dispatch services.
• A backup 911 Center.

Bringing Herkimer County into Oneida County’s 911 system would be supported by monthly phone, cell phone and VOIP surcharges and shared services grants would be available through the New York State. A combined dispatch center of this nature would be a first in the state.
Oneida County absorbed the 911 systems of the City of Rome in 1997, the Town of New Hartford in 2010 and the City of Utica in 2012.

I do think you are going to start seeing this even more especially with more rural counties. Sounds like this is a good idea especially since Oneida County has more resources that it can provide to Herkimer County that would benefit them that they (from the sounds of it) didn't have.

 

[studgeman]

There are numerous factors that have to be considered in inter-county service consolidation in NY. There are technical, operational, and financial factors. A few years back Madison/Onondaga looked at it as well. Madison County reviewed the consultants report and decided to stick with their own. At this point Madison and Onondaga already shared the same radio system, so there wasn't a ton of "technical" on the communications side. There are always issues merging CAD and 911. Rolling the 911 lines over is the easy part. There are costs associated with that. Herkimer and Oneida don't share any common infrastructure so there are a lot of technical challenges. Operationally, Oneida County would likely have to add 2 staffed console positions. That's 6 additional staff, and Oneida County doesn't pay well. You are going to have pretty significant upfront costs. The ongoing maintenance share & staffing costs billed back to Herkimer County should be comparable to the current 911 budget, likely less, but not really significantly less. It's certainly not going to be a savings bonanza for Herkimer. The other unanswered question is how will the state view this with funding and surcharge distributions since Herkimer County is no longer operating a 911 center?

Is this worth looking at? It sure is! But don't think this is a slam dunk. There are too many factors in play to make a reasonable conclusion at this point. There is a reason why consolidated services between counties is almost non-existent in NY. Its hard, its real hard. A consolidated service is much different than a shared service.

 

[DaveNF2G]

The State's policy has been to fund new radio systems only when they are shared between more than one county.

 

[KE2BJW]

All we can do is see what happens cause they don't know as of yet on consolidated conclusion at this moment but just have to see what happens.

 

[studgeman]

All we can do is see what happens cause they don't know as of yet on consolidated conclusion at this moment but just have to see what happens.

That's it! It will be interesting to see what data actually comes out of this process. I am pretty sure the Madison County study is still available on the internet someplace.

 

[KE2BJW]

So say for a example if they do decide to go with the consolidate will Herkimer still be on there same analog microwave system or will they transition over to the Oneida county trunked system.

 

[studgeman]

So say for a example if they do decide to go with the consolidate will Herkimer still be on there same analog microwave system or will they transition over to the Oneida county trunked system.

That question is a little cart before the horse as there are several technical, operational and financial factors that would need to be considered. 911 Consolidation has little to do with radio systems so transitioning radio systems is not a requirement for consolidation. The only real requirement is that the consolidated dispatchers can operate on the existing system. The phrase "operate on the existing system" is key. That has many meanings. Depending on how you define that phrase and how the individual system can be modified to accommodate that definition, will drive your answer on the radio portion of the consolidation study.

If I were to venture a guess, using the most simplistic way, Oneida County would add a CCGW at Herkimer and parallel the existing console punchdowns. The CCGW would just be brought into Oneida County over ethernet to inside the console site router. The Herkimer channels would then just become another console resource in Oneida. There are about 5 other ways this could be accomplished too, none of them being anymore right or wrong than the others.

 

[KE2BJW]

Oh that does make sense and thanks for that information and now all we can do is see what happens.

 

[MegaHertz315]

Slightly off topic, but heads up on testing of a new frequency for Herkimer County Fire.

151.1825 PL 162.2 "Fire Ops South"

Heard various units testing last week, and heard field units testing with the dispatchers console today (11/21/23).

I believe this same channel/frequency pair can or will be tied in with Oneida County at times (when needed), as they are also licensed to the same frequency pair. At one point last week, they were testing the patch between the two counties.

 

[KE2BJW]

Was it analog side or was there digital

 

[k2hz]

151.1825 added to RRDB per submission.
Does anybody know if the Herkimer Co Jail still uses 154.890 now that they are on UHF DMR?

 

[k2hz]

Slightly off topic, but heads up on testing of a new frequency for Herkimer County Fire.

151.1825 PL 162.2 "Fire Ops South"

Heard various units testing last week, and heard field units testing with the dispatchers console today (11/21/23).

I believe this same channel/frequency pair can or will be tied in with Oneida County at times (when needed), as they are also licensed to the same frequency pair. At one point last week, they were testing the patch between the two counties.

I have confirmation that Herkimer Fire will be the primary user of 151.1825. Oneida units may use it for mutual aid to Herkimer but no "patch".

 

[RCjim]

151.1825 added to RRDB per submission.
Does anybody know if the Herkimer Co Jail still uses 154.890 now that they are on UHF DMR?

Yes I still hear 154.890 almost daily. It sounds like prisoners being brought into the Jail from court. Conversations are very brief.

 

[k2hz]

Slightly off topic, but heads up on testing of a new frequency for Herkimer County Fire.

151.1825 PL 162.2 "Fire Ops South"

Heard various units testing last week, and heard field units testing with the dispatchers console today (11/21/23).

I believe this same channel/frequency pair can or will be tied in with Oneida County at times (when needed), as they are also licensed to the same frequency pair. At one point last week, they were testing the patch between the two counties.

FYI - I have been advised that the "patch" testing you heard was console patches between the north and south Herkimer County systems. Not related to the 151.1825 frequency. Fire Ops South will be for Herkimer with some Oneida units possibly capable of operating on the frequency during mutual aid to Herkimer.

 

[k2hz]

Yes I still hear 154.890 almost daily. It sounds like prisoners being brought into the Jail from court. Conversations are very brief.

That makes sense. Jail operations are on the DMR and this frequency is for prisoner transport to court. I will update the description in RRDB. Thanks for the info!

 

[RCjim]

151.1825 being tested today, been going on since 8:15am

 

[k2hz]

I just did a RRDB Herkimer County update adding new frequencies and revising the descriptions for existing ones for the new system.

Does anyone know the PL for 156.2025 County Building Maintenance?

 

[KE2BJW]

Thanks K2HZ I have updated my radios with new Frequencies.

 

[KE2BJW]

I added new Frequencies how come i don't hear anything on them was wondering