Joint Meeting – June 22, 2010
Joint Meeting, Tuesday, June 22, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. Government Center, Verona, VA.
PRESENT: Gerald W. Garber, Chairman
Jeremy L. Shifflett, Vice-Chairman
David R. Beyeler
Wendell L. Coleman
Larry C. Howdyshell
Tracy C. Pyles, Jr.
Nancy Taylor Sorrells
Patrick J. Morgan, County Attorney
Jennifer M. Whetzel, Director of Finance
John C. McGehee, Assistant County Administrator
Patrick J. Coffield, County Administrator
Donna Good, Director, Emergency Communications Center
VIRGINIA: At a joint meeting of the City of Staunton Council, City of Waynesboro Council, and the Augusta County Board of Supervisors held on Tuesday June 22, 2010, at 5:00 p.m., at the Government Center, Verona, Virginia, and in the 234th year of the Commonwealth….
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS CENTER FEASIBILITY STUDY
Patrick J. Coffield, County Administrator, opened meeting and welcomed all present.
Gerald W. Garber, Chairman, called meeting to order.
Stefanie McGuffin, Appomattox Regional Coordinator, Virginia Information Technologies Agency, gave an overview of Commonwealth’s interest and participation and introduced the consultant.
J. Mike Dye, ENP, CHS III, Vice President, Communications Technology of AECOM, presented a PowerPoint overview of the study.
Mr. Dye mentioned the following options:
1. Option 1 – Maintain Existing Situation – No Consolidation – This option would continue the status-quo with each of the three centers continuing to operate independently.
2. Option 2 – Share Services without Consolidation – This option would see the three centers continue to operate independently, but share key systems including the 9-1-1 system, the CAD and RMS systems, and potentially the radio console system.
3. Option 3 – Consolidate Staunton with Augusta County – This option would consolidate the Staunton Police Department’s Dispatch Center with the Augusta County Emergency Communications Center. The Waynesboro Emergency Operations Center would remain as an independent center. If this option is chosen, we strongly recommend that the Waynesboro EOC share services such as the 9-1-1 system, CAD, RMS, and so forth with the consolidated center.
4. Option 4 – Form Combined Center with all three localities – Under this option, the City of Staunton, Augusta County and the City of Waynesboro would consolidate their dispatch centers into one shared emergency communications center.
Mr. Dye recommended at a minimum:
o Shared services without consolidation (Option #2) o Augusta County and Staunton may want to consider consolidating (Option #3) Mr. Dye stated that because there was “nothing broken” with the current operations, a full consolidation of the three would be overly expensive and unnecessary. He further stated, “Normally we come in because there is something wrong, the equipment doesn’t work, there are terrible personnel issues and things like that. We did not find that here.” David Metz, Staunton Council Member, raised issue of digital/narrow banding and Federal timeline/deadline for 2013.
Chairman, Board of Supervisors County Administrator H:6-22jt.09
