Left Holding Bag On VIPER Funds

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Who can blame Southern Pines Fire Chief Hampton Williams and others for calling the Moore County Board of Commissioners to task for what seemed like a switcheroo regarding VIPER?

That ominous-sounding reptilian acronym refers to a communications package that the county has chosen as its way of meeting the requirement for communication systems in the United States to switch from wide band to narrow band by Jan. 1, 2013. The mandate was handed down by the Federal Communications Commission in December 2004.

Williams noted that most emergency responders in Moore County had been "led to believe" over the past two years that the county would handle the $4.5 million VIPER startup costs for all. They were even told to stop buying non-VIPER equipment separately that would have enabled them to meet the FCC mandate on their own.

The Emergency Services Advisory Committee (ESAC) had recommended to the board that the county fund the startup. "We'll find a way to pay for it," was the message that responders repeatedly heard from county officials at the time.

Did We Say 'We'?

The responders interpreted "we" to mean the county. Wrong, it turns out. Last week, County Manager Cary McSwain said "we" meant that everybody would share the cost.

Emergency responders were justifiably flabbergasted at McSwain's response, especially since they had collectively spent more than seven figures since December 2004 preparing for the narrow-band mandate.

"Now, at zero hour, you turn around and say we have to buy (VIPER) radios," Williams said. In other words, at this point more than seven years after the federal mandate, Moore County is saying it has a plan of action but no plan to fund it?

At a special meeting called last week by county commissioners to address the issue, Williams told the board that its decision to ask the county's municipalities to help share the cost was, in effect, double taxation, because property owners in the municipalities generate about 62 percent of the county's annual tax revenues.

"We're all citizens of Moore County," he said.

Ball in County's Court

Commissioner Tim Lea called the ESAC recommendation just that, a recommendation. "It's not binding," he said.

Williams countered that even though VIPER wasn't the "first choice" of most responders, they bought into it to ensure interoperability. "If you don't fund this, you're going to have a huge hodgepodge of radios like we do now," he noted.

While both "sides" of the issue agree that interoperability and public safety are the top priorities, they obviously disagree on the semantics.

The bottom line is that VIPER will save lives by the increased efficiencies and speedier responses that it makes possible. The county needs to buck up and find a way to pay for it, as it said it would.

As we've noted in this space before, whatever pocket the money comes out of, no one can ever place a monetary value on the many lives that will certainly be saved once VIPER becomes operational. Following the county's lead, virtually every police, fire, ambulance and rescue agency in Moore County has agreed to use VIPER.

The county can't leave them holding the bag now.

More like this story

KevinStewart 1 year, 3 months ago

PILOT- "Following the county's lead, virtually every police, fire, ambulance and rescue agency in Moore County has agreed to use VIPER". This is the only statement in this article that is not true, I will continue to fight this VIPER until the bitter end. I hold the Extra Class Amateur Radio license so I have some knowledge of how radio bands work or in this case don't work.

JimHeim 1 year, 3 months ago

PILOT-"The bottom line is that VIPER will save lives by the increased efficiencies and speedier responses that it makes possible."

Are you sure? Like Kevin I'm a long time radio amateur who spent a career working in radio and television in a technical capacity. Time and again, new technologies have emerged that often proved beneficial but frequently entailed unintended consequences and required considerable engineering and expense to finally make work properly.

What evidence does the editorial writer have that this system will operate as advertised? Will it be better than the failed FBI, FAA and a lot of expensive military projects? Was it thoroughly vetted by engineers form many disciplines to guarantee that it will work in all foreseeable situations?

Will it work in rural areas as well as metropolitan environments? Indoors and outdoors?

We radio operators become adept at making out fuzzy voices buried in static and can get messages through when no other medium can. That's analog. In digital communications the signal is either 100% or 0%. We call it the cliff effect. What are first responders to do when the radio goes silent in the middle of a critical message? How robust is VPR?

This is a major change and will require extensive education of everyone who will be using it. Have those funds been allocated? Have those classes been scheduled? Are our first-responders going to be prepared for this switch or will we find ourselves with dangerous gaps in knowledge and experience?

It's not simple and this editorial is woefully incomplete. It could have been written by the vendor who is selling the system.

Frank14623 1 year, 3 months ago

Jim makes a good point about radios going silent at critical moments. Has any impartial person examines the engineering of the VIPER system. Does it have any choke points between Mooroe County and the System Controller. Does it have redundant backup for the links, and hardware. The County needs an impartial study before they spend a minimum of $4.5 million. I would bet that that number will be north of $5 million before it is over. Remember, we the taxpayers will foot the bill for this outrageously expensive system.

truthmatterstome2 1 year, 3 months ago

The Pilot article makes it sound as if the VIPER is a communications system that we are required to have. The VIPER is Voice Interoperatibility Programming for Emergency Responders. The requirement is that all agencies can communicate without relying on central communications to relay information. The county has been fed a load of .B............ . I have stated before that one should follow the money to learn why the county is pushing a program that is not requried, not adequate, and not wanted by almost all emergency departments. The same communications can be achieved through other methods, at a far cheaper cost. WAKE UP, MOORE COUNTY!!

skylinefirepest 1 year, 3 months ago

Lawdy, Lawdy...Jimmy Heim and I actually seem to agree on something. I was on a wreck scene a couple of months back and the trooper had to go to his cellphone because he couldn't get out on his VIPER radio. Apparently, and I am NOT any kind of electronics knowledgable, you have to have many towers to make sure that you can get a signal. I have heard and read that there are other systems available that would be cheaper and more efficient but that the lobbying of the SHP went far with the current political head in Raleigh. I have read that firemen have been put in life threatening positions because the VIPER radios will not transmit reliably in a structure. I was told today that a couple of Moore County firemen in a hallway in the same building recently, could not talk over their radios to each other even though they could hear each other talking! Could it be, Moore County Commissars, that if we can't talk inside a building, that we might simply stay outside and let it burn rather than risk our lives to a piece of faulty equipment???

Frank14623 1 year, 3 months ago

A little bird whispered in my ear that the county is upgrading its UHF system so it will have a 3 channel narrowmand compliant UHF system. If it is gdoint his, why do we need VIPER?

Could we not find a better way and save $4 million, or spend the money on our school system?

Frankk Cattata