By Joseph Deinlein
The Daily Item
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LEWISBURG — Union County commissioners have about 90 days to decide whether the county will install a new analog or digital 911 communication system.
But it would appear a group of emergency responders — those who ultimately will be using the system to respond to fires, accidents or other incidents — favor an analog system.
That flies in the face of recommendations the board has received to go to digital, and led Commissioner John Mathias to suggest a field trip to see a digital system in action.
Commissioner Preston Boop said the board was growing frustrated with the situation. The county signed a contract with engineering firm L.R. Kimball in December 2006, kicking off the process of installing a system.
“We’re at a stalemate,” Boop said. “And I don’t want to do an ‘Obamacare’ approach and mandate to (the emergency responders) we know better than you do.”
During a work session Tuesday, commissioners met with representatives from L.R. Kimball, which was hired to design and engineer a new system that must be in place under federal mandate by 2013.
To meet that mandate, procurement should begin within the next three months, said Robert Sterner, public safety consultant with the company.
There are pros and cons to each system.
The analog conventional simulcast system with analog mutual aid stations essentially is an equipment upgrade of that which is used now. It is analogous to using a walkie-talkie, where a signal is broadcast from one unit and picked up directly by the receiving unit.
It would cost about $1.3 million.
It also is older technology being phased out across the United States. Sterner said the system won’t be getting any innovations and there could be fewer choices for equipment and replacement parts in the future.
The digital P25 trunking simulcast system with analog mutual aid stations is similar to systems already in use in Dauphin and York counties, as well as other locations across the state. It is analogous to using a cellular telephone, where a signal is broadcast from a handset to a relay tower before the it is rebroadcast to the receiving unit.
The estimated cost is $4.6 million, Sterner said.
The newer technology allows a range of features that would permit different emergency responder groups to communicate with one another and county dispatch more efficiently. It also has features that allow interoperability with other counties that are not using a digital system.
However, reports from across the country, let alone Pennsylvania, have led some Union County emergency responders to be fearful of such a system. A committee of them, created by the county to review the radio options, voted recently to recommend the county go with an analog system.
One of the main issues the system has is that it converts a transmission into a computer code, sends it across a certain frequency, then reassembles it for the receiver. If the computer code isn’t properly programmed, the transmission doesn’t work.
Also, sometimes transmissions won’t go through because the sending unit is not able to reach a relay tower.
Boop said he’s spoken to several emergency responders who point to just such problems in York County last year. In response, that county installed two new antennas in the Hanover area, bringing the total countywide to 23, to improve radio and paging problems there.
However, Sterner, who worked with York County and said he personally tested the radios in that area, said the system works over and above the standards set in the county’s contract with the manufacturer.
Those standards require 95 percent coverage 95 percent of the time, said Kevin McGeary, a senior telecommunications specialist with Kimball.
“There is no 100 percent,” McGeary said. “It’s impossible to guarantee that.”
And Gordon Vanauken, a public safety consultant with Kimball, suggested the fears might be unfounded.
“When you say you’re going to put in a new system, people don’t like change,” he said. “They’ll pick one thing (that needs tweaking) and say the whole system doesn’t work.”
Boop and Mathias said they ultimately would choose what the emergency responders recommend, but said they weren’t sure those responders were being fed misinformation. They said much of the trepidation comes from Internet sites and second-hand information.
Sterner suggested the commissioners document the emergency responders choice at a commission meeting.
“You should document that they understand what they are choosing,” he said. “That (the analog system) gives less features and functionality.”
The commissioners asked that “political leaders” from the emergency responders come to a future meeting and voice their choice on the record. A date was not set Tuesday.
At McGeary’s suggestion, Mathias asked for Kimball to arrange a meeting with other emergency responders in York and Dauphin counties to review how their systems work. McGeary suggested the meeting not involve people at the county level, so as not to influence the conversation.
“Put them in a room together and we’ll stay out of it,” he said.
But no matter what, Mathias said the board is between a “rock and a hard place” in its decision.
“I can hear them now,” he said. “We’ll be selecting a system that’s three times the cost, or we’re selecting older technology.
“We need to ensure our guys are firmly behind our decision.”
-- E-mail comments to jdeinlein@dailyitem.com
