Countywide emergency communications system takes shape
Floyd County expects to call for bids Monday to provide the equipment for a new countywide emergency communications system.
The 2009 special purpose, local option sales tax package contains $26.69 million for the project. The latest figures indicate the budget could also cover a 5-year maintenance plan, according to Scotty Hancock, director of the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency.
“Competition is good,” Hancock told the Floyd County Commission Thursday during the board’s annual planning retreat.
TUSA Consulting Services has prepared a detailed, 135-page request for proposals. Hancock said at least two qualified vendors are preparing to bid.
Motorola Inc. is the leading supplier in Georgia for public safety communications systems, but Harris RF Communications — a company previously focused on military communications — also has entered the market.
Hancock said site visits to Chattanooga, Tenn., and Madison, Ky., gave a team of local officials a look at working systems supplied by both Motorola and Harris.
“We learned a lot about what to ask for in our RFP,” Assistant County Manager Blaine Williams said. “And both vendors pointed out things the other didn’t do right.”
TUSA spent six months designing the system to address both agency needs and the county’s terrain.
The current configuration calls for eight strategically placed towers; 30 mobile repeaters attached to various response vehicles to boost signals in the field; 1,342 individual radios; and 45 base stations installed in government and medical facilities.
Hancock said proposals would be due Dec. 16 and interviews with the bidders are scheduled the week of Jan. 10, 2011. The 10-person evaluation committee has representatives from all agencies that will be linked by the system.
“In order for this system to work, we have to have buy-in on the front end from the key people in the community who will be using it,” he told the board.
Hancock said plans are to start phasing in the system by September 2012 in order to have the change*over complete by the end of the year.
The Federal Communications Commission has set a Jan. 1, 2013 deadline for local governments to narrow their radio bandwidth.
The new system will accomplish that goal, eliminate the radio “dead spots” in the county and provide interoperability between agencies that currently use different systems and cannot communicate with each other effectively during joint operations.
Floyd County expects to call for bids Monday to provide the equipment for a new countywide emergency communications system.
The 2009 special purpose, local option sales tax package contains $26.69 million for the project. The latest figures indicate the budget could also cover a 5-year maintenance plan, according to Scotty Hancock, director of the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency.
“Competition is good,” Hancock told the Floyd County Commission Thursday during the board’s annual planning retreat.
TUSA Consulting Services has prepared a detailed, 135-page request for proposals. Hancock said at least two qualified vendors are preparing to bid.
Motorola Inc. is the leading supplier in Georgia for public safety communications systems, but Harris RF Communications — a company previously focused on military communications — also has entered the market.
Hancock said site visits to Chattanooga, Tenn., and Madison, Ky., gave a team of local officials a look at working systems supplied by both Motorola and Harris.
“We learned a lot about what to ask for in our RFP,” Assistant County Manager Blaine Williams said. “And both vendors pointed out things the other didn’t do right.”
TUSA spent six months designing the system to address both agency needs and the county’s terrain.
The current configuration calls for eight strategically placed towers; 30 mobile repeaters attached to various response vehicles to boost signals in the field; 1,342 individual radios; and 45 base stations installed in government and medical facilities.
Hancock said proposals would be due Dec. 16 and interviews with the bidders are scheduled the week of Jan. 10, 2011. The 10-person evaluation committee has representatives from all agencies that will be linked by the system.
“In order for this system to work, we have to have buy-in on the front end from the key people in the community who will be using it,” he told the board.
Hancock said plans are to start phasing in the system by September 2012 in order to have the change*over complete by the end of the year.
The Federal Communications Commission has set a Jan. 1, 2013 deadline for local governments to narrow their radio bandwidth.
The new system will accomplish that goal, eliminate the radio “dead spots” in the county and provide interoperability between agencies that currently use different systems and cannot communicate with each other effectively during joint operations.
