 Yep, okay, so it is six o'clock. We two have two Councils to call in a session, so I'll call in the one for the city of Berry I don't know if Mayor Watson is on so whoever would ring the bell for Montelier Is Jack there? Jack sir. Jack, you can ring the bell. I just got off the phone with Mayor Watson. She's expecting to be on Recording today. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I'm gonna open the meeting because I don't want public safety authority board. Thank you Mayor Watson just joined And then as soon as Mayor Watson is able we'll have her call the meeting to order for Montelier Hey there. This is Anne Watson. So I am just Counting noses here. I see that there are four of us at least here from City Montpelier. So I'm going to go ahead and call the Montpelier City Council to order. I'm going to Turn it back over to either you Lucas or to the CVPS a group. Okay, so I'm just going to note for the record We are I don't think we have any adjustments to the agenda Public comment? Well, I don't see but there is a lot in ours for a public comment. So, uh, surf you have you have two minutes to be recognized Go ahead You should be able to be picked up from that microphone there So, uh, you've all heard this. I see a record from Montpelier. I'm sorry. I don't have that quality You've all heard the old adage that you paid consultants to tell you what you want to hear Unfortunately, this is more complicated. And there are more than half a dozen stakeholder entities involved here capital fire mutual aid systems Central Vermont public safety authority very city council very fire service Montpelier City Council Montpelier police dispatch operation called cap west Central Vermont hospital And most importantly, there's all those who need to maybe need to call for help Some day and we'll also be asked to help pay for these expensive systems And they have different interest agendas and poor horses in this race This televate report was originally fashioned as a simple communications needs assessment It came in came up short in some areas long in others And the report despite its shortcoming makes clear a few things One that we need a new region wide radio system soon And two that it's all about the governance Good governance begins financing to actually build a radio system Solid engineering and design come next maybe a different consultant Public safety is too important to continue to stubbornly defend turf and to act like we're a lot of organizational or municipal islands The ambivalence among the two city councils and lack of technical understanding this dragged us out for years too long Regional systems are cost-effective efficient and better able to be maintained with broad user base It's also about the technology Funding and a lot will be required will gravitate towards well designed and well integrated solutions I encourage you to read the emails between kim chain and senator levy's staffer As there is clear sober thinking there It also took also take a look at my comments from prior years The transcript of my comments from november 2018 to the joint these same two joint city councils are still on point We've learned the hard way that in rural vermont both fiber and cellular coverage will not be built adequately by market forces Without solutions being developed with public sector dollars with solid plans with considerations cooperation. It just won't happen Opportunities will go to those best prepared with future proof plans Integrating fiber Cellular broadband and storm harden radio systems for resilience and rapid disaster recovery So time is We need to move forward quickly our cooperative governance approach Equally distributing the cost among the city and small towns fairly everyone a flexible A flexible model allows some towns to join as voting members later Only by doing this and getting started now will be able to finance and deploy An integrated public safety great communication system quick list In the coming years and maintain it. Well, thank you. Thank you So is there anybody else for public comment before we get started Hearing and seeing none the item which we have warrant here is the cvpsa televate communications report presentation And donna bait. Thank you for coming and turning the floor over to you for the presentation Well, thank you. And I know sometimes it's harder to hear when we're in person with mass and if we're all remote So if people who are remote can't hear me, let me know I'll try to talk loud and I'm sorry. You may think I'm shouting at you. I know it can be a problem behind the mask My pleasure to be here. It's really we don't do it enough. I really miss not having us all in one room But I just want to give a little background to center for mont public safety authority, which I just call public safety authority And and before I turn it over to our consultants. I also want to hear a little bit maybe from dub Who is the former police chief in my failure? I started with this project in 2016 when I was chair of the central remand chamber of commerce George mallick really believed in regionalization of public safety and he convinced me it was the way to go To maximize our resources Not only just money, but people so you could have one big truck and share it and know where it was And personnel people wouldn't have to leave police stations or fire stations to get A graze or a different position that we wouldn't be competing against one another and we could also offer our employees Better opportunity more training and growth professionally And when we did the study, we actually found that the population of around 28,000 30,000 was a really good core Regional not too big not too small, but that's when it starts to pay off when you buy things and start coordinating in one place So I was sold on it. And so we started this committee We had the regional planning commission. We had the municipal towns. We had the town's professional public safety professionals there and we created a committee in 2009 And in 2009 that committee was the one to start on the charter for the actual public safety authority And in 214 they took that charter to the legislators Now between 209 and 214 We had at the table two representatives from berry city Two from montelier two from berry town and two from berlin Now a lot of changes happened since 2006 and 2014 Select boards lots of mindsets and when we got to the actual charter moment in the legislator those Municipals who were chartered was just berry city and montelier But we always knew we wanted to continue But meanwhile, we're trying to do the best we can for the two cities and them working better together More coordinated looking at training for their dispatchers as well as equipment And we feel that indeed we spent $75,000. We got a grant that was a really good kickoff that we spent money helping berry and montelier be more compatible Retard chief fakers really appreciated that he felt we gave them a little Momentum and focus to help berry and montelier do more together. I think they were a little scared of us You know, and it's like we're not about taking over control. We're about come combining control combining resources combining our voices And the more I look particularly into far and ems I feel like they're the stepchildren of funding And they have a radio system that's very different from the police radio system And it encounters a lot more problems And unfortunately when we came on board these two systems already exist And I always get the initials messed up and but the police I believe is you you probably know steven UBT and the other Say the two please Well, they're in two different systems, but we can spend money to link them And that's a lot about what we're talking is trying to link together so people can communicate But we also have a system It's over 30 years old I think you're going to hear some comparisons. How would you like your phone to be over 30 years old? You already get frustrated when the battery starts dying all the time, right? But these are our first respondents do not have dependable radio systems towers connections They lose one another in buildings They lose the hospital when they're transporting somebody when they're trying to transmit records about this person coming in Or should they come in should they go to burlington? I mean, we're talking about really life threatening moments when communication is viable We have old consoles that we're really hoping the municipals keep that commitment to replace those consoles Because like all this 30 plus old equipment out there in the field The consoles also are outdated their parts can't be aren't readily on the shelf anymore And when you have a crisis you're going to Call around for the country try to find how to put that console back together to working order So it's it's really important that we realize Our first responders have done such a good job coping That they've really hidden this problem for a long time And and not maybe been noisy enough, you know the squeaky wheel So we're trying to be their squeaky wheel here today to really to look at what is needed Now we had the fortune in 2000 we were Actually adopted by the legislators in 2014 by 2015. We hired our first executive director And Paco had this experience of coming out of being deputy commissioner for the state of remand's department of public safety And he was really ready to go within six months. He made the first business plan He actually wrote like four business plans all of which came to the councils at one time or another All of which were not accepted and not only that but we couldn't get the enthusiasm to To really move forward. We were given a direction to do one center Everybody in one place It came back another time got direction to do One system with very amount clear coexisting in their own entities That wasn't adopted And so it's been very frustrating But the one thing we felt we've been really good at Is getting people to talk around the table and we got a third member That was another thing the council was one of us to do And we've got capital far mutual aid and they have over, you know, 33 fard parts That's like they serve like Together with Barry Montclair 74,000 people That's a big number for central Vermont It wasn't quite big enough for the earmark. We tried to get out of lehi's office But that's what i'm talking about clout. We've got to have a combined Control combined voice taking our resources to the state to the feds to get these grants that are out there For the first respondents that really needed So the technical is all going to be tell of it. Thank heavens ritz and dom are here and Doug I saw you here. Would you like to say a few words? Before we let them take over You're muted Oh, good evening everyone My name is douglas hoit As it's been advertised i'm a retired chief Back in 2006 I retired from Montclair as the chief of police But I guess for the purposes of tonight I guess I want to go back even further in time To when there was the formation of what is now known as capitol west There was some pretty exciting times getting the local area fire departments together To work they were looking for a way to get Their emergency services dispatched And the city of Montclair was also Looking for a way to engage Its employees and and doing that kind of activity So that there was some financial benefit to the city that also Would allow us to increase our capacity and meet the needs of the regional fire departments And I think for the most part That that occurred It's still an ongoing process That has been still maintained by the city of Montclair But even back then There were issues with fire service communications And and police communications and along the way At least in Montclair we were able to try to Solidify our communication capabilities But even today I think Chief Fakis who recently retired and chief pete who is now the chief in Montclair Would acknowledge that All of those communications are Are weak and need to be addressed A recent conversation with A person that's very familiar in the fire service Would acknowledge that the weakest links at least from the dispatching and Is is the consoles And the consoles As you all well know There's a set of consoles and variant a set of consoles in Montclair And they are the main link to get The information to The The persons that are responding in the field Once upon a time there was nine nine on one services And it was hosted in Montclair and That in my opinion worked very well to provide Real-time services to the residents But I say without any Malice Somewhere along the line the state of Vermont believe that they had a better plan And universal service fund was a way for them to Support their activities and All of a sudden nine one services Left the local area and went to the state of Vermont Department of public safety I'm not even going to offer an opinion as to whether that was a wise move or not But I would only offer up that I think they're trying to figure out another way to handle nine one one services So that could be a question for for the region going forward but Because it would be a way to provide those services and and again Using that same universal service fund to support that But those those are all part of thinking about what it is we're going to do with our communications At any time during tonight's meeting if you would like to ask me some questions I'd be more than glad to answer But I really would like you to have the opportunity to hear from Dominic and rick Um The televate report in my opinion will point you in the right direction To address the most needy issues and But thank you. Hey rick dom which one's starting This is rick and um, um, I apologize my video has gone out and I have been trying to correct it, but um, I I think I've sad to say I haven't been able to fix it. However Um, let me make sure that I can share my screen Leo the host has disabled the participant screen sharing So if you could please allow me to share our screen Dominic and and I will uh, will get started on the presentation So the sheet the screen sharing has been given Thank you very much um me all right, so Please let me know um, if you can see my screen You clearly can't see me But let me know when you can see the screen and I'll put it in the presentation mode We can see it All right. Thank you very much. Okay. So let me get started I'll put in presentation mode Okay. All right. So, uh, everyone on behalf of myself rick berg. I'm the managing partner of televate and dominic arcuri Our subject matter matter expert On this project. We appreciate the opportunity to have Worked with cvpsa and its members and partners on this project and we really have enjoyed This program and and really think at this stage of the game. It's good that we've extended This presentation and I want to share our recommendations to all of you um, dominic and I are going to uh, collaborate I'm going to present some aspects of the presentation dominic is going to take over others We encourage you to ask questions along the way. Don't hesitate to ask questions. We will We will walk through this as uh, carefully and as openly as possible and With that said is there any any First thank you to dana and to doug for for setting up the presentation and to all of you for attending. Is there anything else we need to To discuss before we move into the presentation Nope, you're all set. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. So our agenda here. We're going to go over our project objectives and the scope Present to you our key findings our recommendations Discuss the next steps and then any open discussion That's required and of course along the way. We can do that as well So as we as we put this presentation and this program together It was there was a very well written statement of work released rfp by cvpsa you know with with the request to Conduct a telecommunication communication needs assessment for the central vermont region and as part of that Effort we were requested to document and assess existing communication systems Those for central fire That should be capital fire mutual aid systems montpellier city montpellier the city of barry and the city barry city so, you know we Spent a great deal of time interviewing surveying spending time on site visiting sites to to collect sufficient information to support the effort and and You know as part, you know important deliverables as a result of the project was to identify gaps in these systems And then to determine options And and the cost to upgrade the systems to meet end user requirements And then to provide next steps and recommendations and We did that and so the task there was two primary tasks that really Incorporated a variety of different deliverables and subsets, but the program was really to conduct a complete region wide assessment of existing public safety communication systems and the defined stakeholder requirements And the second task was to propose solutions with designs and cost estimates For resolving indoor and outdoor radio dead zones in barry city montpellier and for cf m as service areas So we were fortunate to be building upon a body of work that had been in production in the region for some time the stakeholders and first responders Of the network were very aware of of their you know of their strengths and weaknesses And and what we did you know was to work directly with them and to You know bring our collective the television is a 20 year old business and dom and I between us have 70 years of experience Or more In this industry and so we have and we've relied on other members of our team But we have a tremendous body of experience In in assessing and building deploying and operating public safety radio And other another networks that are part of the overall process So to briefly go over our key findings I'm going to first we're we're going to discuss them both from a perspective of the police and and the fire and the fire Firefighters in the in the community and and it also includes Because the dispatch personnel are so integral to the process You know, certainly they they were part of and and a part of the study And they also made important contributions and you know, what we what we mentioned to you will also include Insights about their needs So on the police side and it's interesting to note right up front that the police and the fire communications are on two different radio Frequencies and and those and those two frequencies are not interoperable Um, without there being some middleware, you know, either it be a dual band radio or or the ability to patch Community you know patch their systems So, you know, you you there are different frequencies and one happens to be better in building than the other providing and building coverage However, our our key findings here for the police lmr was that, you know, there's improvements are required um for in building coverage and You know, it really has a lot to do with You know the fact that there's not a lot of radio sites to provide Enough rf to get into buildings, but also your buildings I think if if I remember right, it's a you know, your your your grant have buildings and they they are very difficult to get radio signals And you know, there's also for the fire department from the police department and in general for all public safety responders in the community You know, there there's a need for enhanced interoperability between the public safety between the first responder community And a need for continuity of operations between them Communication plans and so piece and we'll we'll spend a little bit more time about those otherwise So the also the your dispatch consoles as Doug mentioned are really operating well beyond their life cycle And they are they are outdated and they are they are at risk of failure at any time They are just old school and are not modern and are not You know run the risk of of being reliable and I will also You know take this time before I move into the you know discussion on the on the fire communications network that as a The reason that you've been able to operate so successfully even with the age and outdated equipment that you have and the lack of of of ideal communications is because of the skills and and and hard work and and Ingenuity of of the communicators of the first responders and the dispatchers communicate with them Those folks work very very hard and work around a lot of obstacles that are just not common and not really acceptable for public safety communication networks They make them work, but it's really a testament to them. But these systems are They are antiquated And they are at the risk of failure at any given time And so you know as it says for the fire lmr systems The the equipment is antiquated as as donna mentioned 30 years old technology And they are not really properly configured right they are not operating in a manner That's conducive to reliable interoperable communications between You know the the region and the cities There's also only a single frequency for multiple departments, which You know leads to extreme congestion at times when you know in the event that there's multiple Um, you know responses so you've got multiple mission critical events and and we're all communicating on a single radio network A wide area network. I mean there are there are radio to radio Frequencies available, but we really need more channels Also, you know that as I said the same frequency communicating to and from dispatch Um and between firefighters Who are on their way to the event? Everyone is on the same network and same channel. So there's plenty of congestion on that radio channel And to make matters even worse, there is tremendous interference on that rate and then that single frequency There's interference from users in canada taxi cab Uh Communications as well as from elsewhere within the state of ramon So, you know, you've got kind of a perfect storm here that that really has created, you know, communication Gaps a delay and hamper response and put your first responders in the communities. They serve at risk There are coverage gaps throughout the service area Not just within the buildings the building and the buildings have even a you know, even a more severe issue and You know, there's also a lack of redundancy. So we build The best practice in building and operating public safety communication systems Is to have redundancy in your system So that the event of a failure of a back calling or a radio site or a radio channel That there is a back over this is building, you know, building your network's submission critical grade requires that there be a build-in redundancy at both the power systems and and the communication infrastructure So, you know, with that said, there's just a high risk of equipment failure at any given time and lives are at risk because of of of the You know of the status of the network as it is is operating today Or there's a there's a risk that critical information is delayed in getting to the The first responders the fire fighters in the field and to and from and we we we witnessed, you know, hands-on Observation visiting sites and communicating with the responders about how they communicate how they relay how they have to You know move their themselves to a position where they can relay back to one another Where multiple towers serve a given incident? And and they you know the dispatchers and the firefighters need to communicate multiple sites to get there is It's just in our opinion. This is one of the most This is one of the poorer systems we've witnessed over our careers And I hate to be so blunt about it, but it's important to be that direct about about the risk of your of your system Particularly on the firefighter the firefighter system today And now we're moving the recommendations before I do. Are there any questions? Before we move into our the list of recommendations that we've provided So I'm going to ask a couple and it's more about the scope of the project itself Yes For the system coverage for washington county. Do you have a percentage or the number of municipalities that would cover? Washington west covers a certain number We we have coverage maps that will that we are that we've brought along and we can present them to you so the the the answer is yes, we have that information And uh dom is going to uh, we'll discuss it a bit later But we do have coverage maps of the of the current and future, you know future recommended network Then I'll save the rest of my questions until after the rest of the presentation. All right, sir. Thank you Okay, um, I'm gonna let dom talk about the recommendations and um, here you go dom. Thank you All right, thanks rick and also I want to thank dana and dug for giving us the opportunity to To work with them on this important study and to Be here with you tonight. We're very honored to be here and be able to provide our findings and recommendations and also to echo rick's point to certainly take my head off to the local stakeholders and the administrators have have done an excellent job of Maintaining this system through very difficult situations and and keeping it operational up to this point, but it is Definitely as rick mentioned one of the you know most antiquated and Older systems that we've seen Some of the recommendations and you'll see that these will mirror Some of our findings, of course we provide a recommendation for at least an additional radio site required within the City of Montpelier to provide improved downtown communications We also will provide on the fire side will recommend a dual system approach, which will include additional sites in the city areas of both Montpelier and berry And on the police side some of the one of those sites is will most likely be applicable to assist with the police in building communications as well in addition to that a vehicular repeater is a tool that can be used to help expand coverage even further where you might not have a tower site within the vicinity or It might not have adequate coverage to a portable radio vehicular repeaters are in use today and We believe that there you should be expanded to help expand the coverage to portable radios One one item some of you may be aware others may not that Getting coverage to a mobile radio or a radio mounted within a vehicle Is significantly easier than a smaller portable radio as you might guess the mobile radio has a higher power Has a better antenna system So the vehicular repeater can take that coverage to the mobile radio and help expand it out to local users on using a portable Also, as rick mentioned, we recommend improvements in interoperability and feeding into the continuity of operations recommend a task force to put together a interoperability plan throughout the region Rick mentioned that we have the fire service operating on the bhf frequency band Police operating on the uhf frequency band. So there needs to be a plan in place as to how those agencies as well as the multiple law enforcement agencies, you know, we have of course Berry City, Montpelier City, there's capital police. There's washington county sheriff All that need to talk to each other on occasion. So that requires documented procedures to follow and how continuity of operation comes into play when there are some Some difficulties or some Interruptions in various systems Go ahead police rick. Yep, sir On the on the fire side on the fire side as rick mentioned the fire communications is in a dire situation We recommend a regional standards based p25 is a type of digital communication standard developed specifically for public safety in fact One of the agencies currently Montpelier police is is using that type of system already We recommend the fire system be developed to be capable of p25 operations That also assists with the potential for getting grant funding to assist with the regional system as well A simulcast system is what we recommend which will use multiple sites to expand the coverage throughout the larger area the broader area which with all the departments extends throughout washington county and In addition to that in some neighboring counties as well That is all recommended of course to improve coverage Uh, we also recommend the vehicular repeaters can be useful here as as well to expand the portable radio coverage And uh, as as rick mentioned congestion is one of the key issues that we experienced Here in central vermont The single frequency being used for multiple Departments a large number of departments as well as that same frequency being used both to dispatch First responders as well as first responders talking back to dispatch talking to each other on scene Etc. So We would recommend certainly pursuing and licensing additional radio channels Some of the local stakeholders have already identified potential Frequencies and have begun to license those So we certainly applaud The hard work that they've done today and we recommend that be continued and incorporated into the regional system approach There should be separate frequencies both for the city operations versus capital fire They have of course different coverage areas and typically deal with different types of issues So again to reduce congestion. We recommend separate channels and also The search should Include of course interference free bhf channels. There are Currently some interference issues being experienced So new channels that are free of interference need to be located and licensed appropriately Uh, one additional thing, uh, we recommend is including Additional receivers for the what we call the tag channels or the technical channels These are different channels typically used on scene for First responders talking to each other And generally that would not be heard by dispatch Which is a safety issue. So including additional receivers Throughout the coverage area would allow dispatch to monitor on scene communications To ensure they know what's going on in case additional resources need to be dispatched Next work, thank you We've already talked about the dispatch consoles. Of course, the critical upgrade is needed Due to their age and due to their lack of support from current manufacturers And they are currently two different types Of consoles used at the two different Dispatch centers You'll also hear me refer to PSAPS. That's an acronym For public safety answer point, which many of you You know might know as a dispatch center Currently there's different consoles being used. So we recommend Upgrading both of those and using a similar similar type Which will allow For greater redundancy and capability for Either PSAP to take over operation for the other should that Requirement occur We recommend a common CAD system also between the two PSAPS What's being used today is a kind of a local sourced system, I believe Velcor is the System name right now. It's primarily a records management system and and not a Full-time CAD system that would normally be used by public safety dispatchers But we do recommend upgrading to a CAD system for both PSAPS And recently there was a connection Installed between the two PSAPS, which has been very effective to Allow them to be able to hear the activity in Each PSAP to help reduce some of the congestion and help coordinate We certainly recommend that that be a redundant circuit to provide the redundancy necessary to enhance Continuity of operations should one of the dispatch centers be unable to communicate Adam as we move to the next slide. I'm going to encourage us to pick up the pace so that we give Time for questions. So certainly So let's just you know Let's not put in too much detail unless asked. All right, sir. Absolutely regional interoperability We we've talked about this Previously we need to document the radio communications plan so that different agencies can effectively speak to it one another Those plans have to be regularly practiced in training and exercise and also The network operating procedures need to be documented and followed very closely, especially when we move to a regional system Uh in terms of broadband systems, uh, there are some potential capabilities or enhancements That could be incorporated Using cellular broadband. Obviously that depends on coverage and coverage needs to be improved in that area the state needs to coordinate with the first net authority Uh building out a public safety broadband network to identify where coverage is needed and where it will be Incorporated the use of push to talk or Mission critical push to talk type services over cellular Can provide an enhancement and additional communications once there is sufficient broadband coverage And also of course once there is broadband coverage in certain areas. There are a number of public safety focused applications Um that are specific to either the fire discipline or law enforcement discipline, which can greatly improve public safety response Those should uh plans should be developed for those Okay, so i'm going to uh talk a little bit about governance here So as was mentioned Earlier when we started governance is really the foundation Of of doing good communications on a regional basis number of stakeholders and number of owners of the network Right now the the cvpsa is a as a functioning organization and governance organization And and they are um, you know, they they are doing The best they can under their charter and under the capabilities and and constraints that they have um, we recommend And support of this uh this governance and enhance the governance to integrate city leadership um and and to the effect that we could you know include Some of the town members into it. So select board membership could be brought on But we need city leadership in there to support us and you know support us in determining funding and procurement capabilities Does the charter need to be expanded to include um, you know town membership We certainly recommended it and another thing, you know, as mentioned greater fire chief participation And you know the the optimal use of committees subcommittees and working groups to advise the the cvpsa board on on how to best implement and operate and and maintain um, the networks, uh, if that if they have a role in that so defining their role is going to be important process as well We as part of the project is one of our requirement. We actually looked at regional partnerships um, a very successful method here to To both, uh, invite others on to networks and to Utilize their assets and and actually have them bring fine funding to the table Um, it is prudent. So we really we spoke to uh, cv cv fiber um, uh, a local broadband entity, uh state entity that's building out fiber optic networks We we met with the washington electric co-op the vermont, uh electric power company And and you know, certainly the state of vermont has Capabilities, we didn't directly talk to them, but but members of the team of the Of the stakeholder team did so partnerships are very valuable and it can be very beneficial to building and operating Um, a robust regional radio communication networks Um, so with that said, um, are there any questions right now? And I know I want to be cognizant of our time. We're at 646 We could give you a little bit of overview of the radio network. I know there was a question about the coverage But donna, uh, I I'll I'll turn to you to ask if we should talk a little bit more about You know the network or should we you know do take time to talk about what we've uh, um presented so far Well, I think you might want to show the map. It's just a couple slides Away for coverage And then maybe uh, you can answer lucas's question Yeah, do you have a map of the area of like washington county? One slide gets cut off because of Our picture there. I don't know if the picture can become smaller. There you go Okay, sorry about that Yeah, this is uh, just showing the we put together a concept design for the regional network I'm sorry, uh, did I interrupt is there a question? No, we're just making adjustments so that the screen where we can see hands go up would still be visible While also seeing the majority of the maps on the screen. This is the expanded network, right? Um That's right. This is the concept network the recommended regional network We also did coverage maps and simulations for the current network We don't have them here in this presentation, but those We're in the report and those can be provided Very quickly. This shows you three Three pictures on the left is a concept for an improved City dual city system What's shown here in green is coverage and that's coverage to a very high level that's coverage in building at within the city areas so you can see that covers the entire city of berry the majority of Montpelier as well and that's that was the intention of that portion of the system to provide improved in building coverage in the center you see the entire capital fire response area that includes the entire Washington County as well as The towns outside of Washington County such as Washington and Williamstown And parts of orange as well They're also walled in I believe to the north That they're all included so that provides mobile coverage throughout that entire area also, we recommend improving the Reception of ambulance to the hospital communications that occurs on a separate frequency But right now it has very poor coverage only using a single site Throughout that entire service area we recommend adding a few receivers to greatly enhance that coverage as well and that's what you see in the map to the right With that said, we do have we do have maps on the existing network and and I'm working very closely with With y'all's worth and others. I mean we We visited sites. We mapped existing coverage. We identified Reliable and potentially available new sites to add to a A preliminary design that had already been put together by cfm by capital fire Which was a really good beginning and it was a simulcast network Which is what you really need an analog simulcast network is a cost effective Radio network technology that will enhance the ability to properly communicate to all responders no matter where they are in the coverage area But you know there's that we could go a little deeper into this coverage proposal design Talk about pricing and and others But I still want to you know want to be respect the council and all the participants time so No, just as the follow-up for this if you could do an overlay of the current signal area the concept area and then also The municipalities or the different groups that'd be Paying into this if we were to pay for the additional coverage because From what i'm seeing you're covering all of washington county, but we're not including all of washington county a part of this conversation So if we could have that as part of the later if you can provide that information, that'd be great We can certainly do that Well has yes, we did perform coverage and for each of the towns included in the assessment, yes That's this map here This map here sir gives a better idea of of the capital fire service area You know in that in that pink that that peach color there Are we designed a network to provide robust coverage throughout that geographic area? And in doing so because of topography and because of ideal site locations We get coverage beyond this service area And we didn't design a network to cover all of washington county, but At bringing them on as a partner of my you know, certainly might Be a good idea in terms of of asset and cost sharing I have a question about i know that historically towns have left the the center romant public safety No, no, no, no, I mean not actually left it. They were done who were talking about joining that didn't end up joining so in In the capital fire District which seems to encompass a lot of people would those towns Would it make those towns more like if they're benefiting from this improved service? Would they be more likely to join in and pay towards it? Right now because so many of them are so small The towns are their membership at backberry and montpellier belong to capital fire mutual aid system But the towns within there are so small. I mean at one point I added I counted them when uh for the Leahy earmark, you know that most of them are less than 2000 people And so I mean their budget they're all volunteer fire departments Is very small, but we've done some cost accounting that's such as if we actually took on this plan and took the number that has given us and Priced it out for a 10-year bonding, you know, it would be like 20 000 dollars 19 000 dollars a year for 10 years And that's a lot for some small towns, but at least starts the discussion And within the capital fire network, it's all about a regional system right now montpellier and berry provide a lot of mutual aid for free And so they're still going to be carrying the lion's share. They're the lion's population But to have some increased participation from the surrounding towns in capital investment to me is very important And that would be part of the discussion we would move from this study with is then let's sit at the table with the right people at the table Former coalition and talk about the cost allocation And the dispatching now happens in montpellier and in berry and I know that one point there is proposed that there would be a central central dispatching central PSAP, but I know that That putting a new PSAP is not an easy process and you have to apply to 911 and There's some there would be some considerable costs there, right? Well, p PSAPs are totally separate They're outside of our immediate bailiwick. That's each city would have to decide to do that We can certainly advocate for it because we think there are advantages Because the PSAP will ultimately give you grants and access to equipment that you wouldn't have otherwise But it's very complicated. So we're not here today. At least I'm not prepared And rick and don may be to talk about more about p saps But what we've been focusing on is the level service our dispatch centers in berry and montpellier now do And because capital far has all their dispatch done through montpellier. That's our audience That's why we're not right now dealing with the p saps issue Thank you, but it is out there to be dealt with Councillor hemmerick Uh, thank you, mayor. Thank you for the great presentation. It it sounds like there's the systems really need a modernization And I I also have a governance question that donna you you touched on a little bit I know that the berry city has fewer mutual aid towns and and as I understand it and do correct me if I'm wrong That the cities do get money from some of their revenues from some of their mutual aid communities And and certainly berry has one of the lower Per capita median household incomes in the region and we already have one of the highest tax rates In in washington county. And so absent Additional members, you know, what what's the vision for regional fair share? where Or berry city isn't on the hook for providing Or for a new and additional cost Um Well, we we feel that this is one of the things that we've asked straight up to the councils when I sent you the material For tonight's presentation Was this aspect that we would like to see the twin city team that is made up of your chiefs and public safety staff Connect with capital far and two representatives from central romant Public safety authority and and create a core team to sit down and say, okay One what kind of governance model works if we don't like public safety authorities model What would work for us? What kind of regional model? Coalition could we buy into and have people around the table who are Have the authority given by their councils by their municipals to participate Work on cost formulas come back to these governing bodies and get something that people will approve and support and make happen I'm not here to say public safety authority is the entity to be that coalition I'm saying we may need a whole new coalition But we definitely got a step outside of public safety authority existence Outside of the cities outside of capital far and come together and really think without town boundaries What is the governance model look like that will work for everyone and be real creative and then go back to our authoritative entities and make it happen because the locals can't pay for but we can't Sustantiate and justify state and federal dollars until we work together as a group the one thing we heard from lehi's Application to lehi and people pulled together. I mean dug and jill from barry man They dug right in and provided us with so much important information It was incredible that we pulled together that last minute application I mean, you know, lehi didn't give you much time They announced it in two weeks. It's got to be in but we put in not only a good application But we set a precedent. Okay, so we need better governance We need better financial agency a better financial standing We know what we need now to qualify for federal grants But until the region decides and approves Of some governance model and said, this is a coalition we want. This is what we're going to call it We're just all floundering trying to get that state and federal dollars So mayor Watson, I haven't had anyone from mom pillar that I've seen their hand up I just want to make sure I gave enough opportunity for others as well Well, thank you. Um, I can't uh, see everybody Simultaneously, so I have also not seen any other hands from Pealier I don't have any questions at this time But thank you for checking And with that we are almost at the end of the show Is there any closing statements that you wanted to make the closing station statement is Individually, we all have the same issues when we come together and combine the resolution and solutions for the issue I feel we have a controlling combining control and combining resource That can everybody can benefit from and so I hope you will consider really Authorizing people to come to this core team from Barry and from Montpelier and say let's do this Let's come up with a new governance model. Let's throw everything out. What do we need? For a governance model. What do we need for a cost formula people feel comfortable with and then help us Convince the towns the smaller towns that's worth it So that's what I want and I'll come back as many times you need and with more information And televate has given me lots of slides even if they're not available. I can bring them with the experts behind me And uh, yes, so thank you. Thank you very much for listening Thank you. And then for the follow-up because I'm going to have some follow-up questions, too Do you want us to contact you directly? Yes, you can send it to me. Thank you. I'll forward them on and get it to the right people for the right answers Okay Thank you. Thank you. So I look for a motion to adjourn the special session from barry city Second All those in favor, please signify by saying aye and oppose nay Thank you By unanimous consent unless there are objections. I'm closing public safety authority meeting And I'm going to uh do the same without objection. Um, we'll end the month here city council meeting And thank you for all of your work on this. This is really great Thank you very much. Thank you all Thank you everyone for coming in together. This was a good presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great evening