Cedar county firemen are about one month away from computer integrated automatic vehicle location mapping. At a cost of $42,646, the Minnesota firm GeoComm has been in the process of coordinating since 2005 a complete data conversion project involving dispatch to vehicle service using cellular technology with laptop locator.
Firemen want to know on April 2 how soon everything would be installed into designated vehicles. In a conference call with GeoComm representative Stacy Gross, firemen learned that since GeoComm did not serve as the vendor for procuring all the hardware in the project such as the laptops and modems, the firm must await the installation timelines of the providers. Cedar county would have found the conversion cost about $20,000 more, if low bids had not been sought.
Gross said the county should have an installation coordinator. After discussion, Tipton Fire Chief John Miller agreed to serve as the scheduling coordinator between vendor progress in the county and GeoComm in Minnesota.
Gross said GeoComm will load the software on the computers after the laptop vehicle mounts have been installed by a Coralville radio company. The county will need to have the whole project concluded by June to take advantage of the state grant that was authorized for this project. He said his firm would be able to schedule individual vehicle implementation at the law enforcement center by the end of April or by mid-May at the latest. Each community will bring the rig with the vehicle mount to the installation appointment. The job should take about 2 days.
Firemen asked acting 911 coordinator Jill Randolph what difference mapping conversion technological improvements would make in their emergency response.
Randolph said dispatch will be able to visually monitor on screen where specific response vehicles are moving in the county and will be able to better route them more efficiently to emergency situations in case of poor road conditions.
This will be especially meaningful as the countywide Global Information System goes online next year.
The only non-functioning part of the new conversion project at this time will be access to mapping in portions of fire districts that cross county lines. This conversion GPS system now covers only Cedar county. The system has not yet expanded to integrate the mapping of surrounding counties.
Firemen noted that the first vehicle out to an emergency “gets the most abuse” driving to the site. Maybe the computers ought not to be located in those. They wondered which of their response vehicles should be equipped with GPS and laptop tracking, since each community has been assigned one per department and one per ambulance service. The sheriff’s department will include equipment in each deputy’s vehicle. Dispatch will only be visually tracking vehicles with the GPS, so despite the rough driving, the first vehicle out will need the GPS system.
Another concern expressed by the firemen, which was not fully addressed, was how to locate a specific site if cell phones are used to report the emergency. |
