who is responsible?

[kermit3970]

Our fire department is paged thru the county sheriffs department dispatch center. If there is a problem with radio coverage in certain areas, who is responsible for correcting the problem as well as the cost for fixing it? Any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

 

[chief21]

Without any specific background, I would hesitate to try and field such a question. There are so many possible variables involved. For example, does the paging channel use a fire radio channel or does it use the Sheriff's radio channel? Which agency owns and operates the channel in question? The Sheriff? The county? A multi-agency Cooperative?

As a starting point, perhaps you should try to determine if there is any type of written agreement between the parties involved (a formal contract, or at least a Memorandum of Understanding?). I would think that your county Sheriff would want SOME level of structure so that each parties responsibilities are clearly spelled out.

Good luck.

 

[zz0468]

Our fire department is paged thru the county sheriffs department dispatch center. If there is a problem with radio coverage in certain areas, who is responsible for correcting the problem as well as the cost for fixing it? Any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Unless the principals involved in THAT specific system are on RR, any answer is going to be conjecture and guesses, including this one.

Usually the system owner would be responsible for coverage, but I've seen cases where it's adequate for the primary owner, and problematic for an external agency that also uses the system, and the external agency coughed up the money to make it work.

So, it can go either way.

 

[canav844]

Our fire department is paged thru the county sheriffs department dispatch center. If there is a problem with radio coverage in certain areas, who is responsible for correcting the problem as well as the cost for fixing it? Any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Responsibilityfor equipment and costs and coverage is going to be found in the contracts at the local and county levels and if they're on WISCOM you'll be looking at the state level contracts too. It's all going to boil down to what the lawyers wrote and the government officials approved.

 

[davidgcet]

as others said, this reply is a general answer and may not be applicable to YOUR situation.

around here all county FD are paged out by the SO. BUT the FD is responsible for their own repeaters, bases, and even the paging encoder at the SO. so if coverage is not there, the FD is responsible for purchasing any required upgrades. teh one exception is that some FD members are paged over their trunked radios(page groups are setup to go out 2 tone on conventional and call alert on trunked with a single button push) and the trunked portion it is the responsibility of the system owner(911 in this case) to ensure it has the specified level of coverage. if the problem is with the individual radio, that falls back on the FD or the agency that owns that particular unit, only SYSTEM issues are the responsibility of 911. this is the way it is for multiple counties here that i maintain, but other places everythig falls under 1 roof. your best bet is to let your CHIEF handle the politics involved in getting issues fixed. he/she will know who to talk to for best results. if the chief refuses to do anything, and can't give a good answer as to why they can't, then it is time for several members of the community and the FD to go before the county board with their grievances. but don't run there first, going thru the proper levels of escalation will give better results than just running straight to the top.

 

[RKG]

The question asked is not a radio question, but rather a local government relations question.

 

[W2NJS]

I find it difficult to understand why a person would look here for an answer to the question when it's so obviously a question of local/state government responsibility.