County Called to Task on Funding for Communications System
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Southern Pines Fire Chief Hampton Williams called the county commissioners to task Tuesday for agreeing last month to approach municipalities to share a portion of the $4.5 million bill to implement VIPER, a narrow band emergency communications system.
The unfunded mandate, handed down by the the Federal Communications (FCC), must be operational by Jan, 1, 2013.
Williams said the board's decision "came as a total surprise to the majority" of the county's emergency responders.
"It was a complete reversal from what we were led to believe," he said. "VIPER might not have been our first choice, but we bought into it, even though a lot of us had already spent money preparing for the narrow-band mandate. We were well on our way to being compliant until the switch to VIPER.
"Now, at zero hour, you turn around and say we have to buy radios."
Williams said he had purposely removed funding for the mandated radios from his budget for the past two years.
"In our opinion, if you force the municipalities to fund their own radios ... then you're opening the door for interoperability to be lacking. You're going to have a hodgepodge of radios like we do now," he said. "We are basically asking you to fund 100 percent of this initiative. We need some direction on which way we should go ... hopefully in a timely manner."
The estimated cost for the county's emergency responders to purchase the necessary equipment — mobiles, radios, pagers and other system upgrades — is just shy of $3 million.
Commissioner Nick Picerno suggested a trip to Washington, D.C., to ask the North Carolina congressional delegation to push for an extension.
"Personally, I think we need to arrange that trip," Picerno said. "It probably should have been put together a year ago. We're a little behind."
Picerno and the rest of the board want to find a solution that does not involve a tax increase.
"We have no interest in increasing taxes," Commissioner Tim Lea said.
Picerno said there wasn't enough information to make a decision Tuesday, a sentiment shared by Board Chairman Larry Caddell.
"We're not going to solve the problem today," Caddell said.
VIPER (Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders) is managed by the State Highway Patrol for all responders across the state.
The FCC issued the changeover mandate because of recent increases in emergency communications channels and the need to keep the airways as open as possible because of growth in population and use of emergency communications equipment.
The board tabled the issue until its Feb. 21 meeting, but will likely call a special meeting in the interim to discuss a solution.
In other action Tuesday, the board tweaked membership on the county's Land-Use Plan Steering Committee by adding eight people to committee and turning six current members and one new one into ex-officio members, who can participate in the process but not vote.
The new members are John Blue, Sandy Stewart, Carolyn Mealing, Terry Bryant, Lewin Blue, David Allred, Archie Kelly and Debra Ensminger, the county's director of planning and development.
Ensminger, Ron Maness, Linda Gore and David Gould are all county employees. The other ex-offico members are the mayors of Aberdeen, Pinehurst and Southern Pines — Betsy Mofield, Nancy Fiorillo and David McNeill, respectively.
See Friday's edition of The Pilot for more details about the meeting.
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Comments
usapatriot 1 year, 3 months ago
well VIPER is not the only choice even though scott brooks wants you to think it is. Narrow band compatibility can be achieved with the click of a button on cheaper radio. You cant dispatch off of VIPER so the county will still have to have a narrow band UHF/VHF system. VIPER is not used by all of america so we would still have patch into other communication systems. This whole thing is a crock.
kst101 1 year, 3 months ago
Even the Highway Patrol is looking for a different communication system, the viper program needs to be dropped.
usapatriot 1 year, 3 months ago
@kst101-your correct on that one. half the time troopers cant use VIPER so they 1)use the old system. or 2)use the good ol cell phone.
Toda 1 year, 3 months ago
I recall some years ago when the repeater towers were built to resolve any future communications issues with providers. Now the system needs improving while state agencies are abandoning VIPER.
On another note: "...Ron Maness, Linda Gore and David Gould are all county employees...", I find it interesting that Ron Maness of Airport fame is a county employee. So why isn't their balance sheets public information? Or was that a misprint?
bubbasmith 1 year, 3 months ago
You tell them Chief Hamp!! Another thing is liability, if an emergency worker goes down or needs assistance inside of a buliding or rural dead spot, the County would be guilty of negligence for forcing the Viper on those that know it is deficient.
geozap 1 year, 3 months ago
Public Safety Communications FCC “Narrowbanding” mandate is an effort to ensure more efficient use of the VHF and UHF spectrum by requiring all VHF and UHF Public Safety Communications and to insure “Interoperability” of communications between Emergency responders. This came from the lack of coordination of emergency radio communications during the Sept 11 attacks.
All public safety agencies knew in 2003 this mandate was required by the FCC to be implemented by 2013. According to the FCC website non-compliance will be considered a violation that could lead to FCC enforcement action, which may include admonishment, monetary fines, or loss of license. There has already been at least one extension of this deadline.
Here is a link to some more information: http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/docs/public-safety-spectrum/General_Information_on_VHF-UHF_Narrowbanding.pdf
geozap 1 year, 3 months ago
Speaking toward the VIPER radio system; there are better systems out there but they cost more. VIPER does allow for good coordination of radio communications between units, and public safety agencies. VIPER does work pretty well with clear line of sight, but has some serious difficulty’s working inside buildings or when the line of sight to the tower/repeater is obscured like in low areas.
After years of planning and study Orange County NC switched to VIPER using the NC State VIPER system in 2009. The Chapel Hill Fire Department and EMS quickly identified some very serious deficiencies with the system. Sometimes they could not communicate with fire ground personnel because the hand held units could not talk through the buildings, creating a possibly dangerous situation for responders. It is not acceptable for emergency personal who count on the ability to communicate every time, in every location not to be able to call for assistance. Moore County is going to experience the same conditions.
Chapel Hill immediately started looking for a solution; and discovered that additional mobile repeaters and towers would be needed. Additional unexpected cost I might add.
Here is the link to the report; I direct you to page 11; http://www.usfa.fema.gov/pdf/efop/efo44856.pdf
George Gullickson (Former Moore County 911 Communications Shift Supervisor)
skylinefirepest 1 year, 3 months ago
Since I am not electronics proficient I'll stay out of the details. I have been on scenes where the NCSHP had to go to a cellphone because the VIPER system wouldn't get out for them. . I have heard both pros and cons about the VIPER system from people whose word I do trust with the majority being in the cons column. While it's important to be able to talk to my fellow firemen it is not necessary for me to be able to talk to Raleigh FD, etc. My understanding is that we needed improvement after 9-11 but that the government wanted more of the spectrum so it could be sold for business or cellphone use. Money always rules!
fish 1 year, 3 months ago
The unfunded mandate? This does not say to spend 4.5 millions of dollars but, it only says to update some of the system already in the county for half of million dollars. Why can’t this work for Moore county but, it does work for many other counties in the state. You can go to your local fire department and they will tell you most of there radios have already been updated to narrow band over the last two or three years. Why not use a cell phone? They work on the same type of system as VIPER that not working. If you can’t make a phone call with a cell phone in an area or in a building a VIPER system will not work either. I called a Motorola dealer and UHF portable radio cost $400.00 and a VIPER will cost $2400.00 and the same with mobiles. A uhf will cost $500.00 and a VIPER will cost $3500.00. So why are the tax payers so willing to pay much higher taxes or is this large amount of money coming out the surplus of millions of EMS tax dollars the county has.