The Crawford County Board of Commissioners on Friday approved a more than $29,000 bid to replace aging computer equipment in the emergency dispatch center at the sheriff's office in Girard.
John Gagliardo, county 911 director, told commissioners the equipment currently in use is 10 years old. Due to its age, the county is experiencing periodic computer failures that are increasing in frequency.
“We're starting to have some problems with those computers,” Gagliardo said. “In the past six months, we've had quite a few problems.”
There are four separate work stations available and there are typically two dispatchers handling 911 calls and radio traffic with emergency responders on duty, so there is redundant equipment. But there have been times when a computer will go down for anywhere from two to three days at a time, Gagliardo said. It creates the potential for a serious bottleneck in communications should a major disaster strike.
“It's not like we're losing all our information” when the computers go down, he said. “But, when we have two dispatchers on duty, we need to make sure we have all the screens up all the time.”
The bid from nine-one-one, a Denver-based company specializing in emergency communications equipment and technology, includes four complete, dual-monitor workstations, along with up-to-date software. The package also includes the latest geographic information systems (GIS) imaging and data on the county. GIS integrates a variety of data and helps dispatchers when they're organizing responses to various emergency situations.
There could be some additional charges on top of the $29,353 bid, for shipping the equipment and other, unforeseen charges, Gagliardo said, urging commissioners to approve the request.
“This is equipment that's really needed,” he said. “We're replacing equipment that's been in service for 10 years and it's starting to give us trouble. It's in service 24-7-365.”
Gagliardo also told commissioners his department had received approval on a portion of an approximately $140,000 grant proposal to help pay the costs of transferring equipment from the current Pittsburg Police Department offices to the new facility, currently under construction.
The county received approval for 66 percent of their request, or more than $92,000, with the city of Pittsburg to cover the balance. Plans are to move operations to the new facility in February, Gagliardo said, but the transfer of equipment could begin as early as December.
“I can't tell you for sure how much the cost is going to be for Pittsburg,” he said. “There'll be some costs (associated with the transfer) over the next three months.”
The board unanimously approved the request on a motion by Commissioner Tom Moody, seconded by Commissioner Ralph McGeorge.
In other business, the board:
• Requested an progress update on the planned demolition of the old nursing school building on the former hospital grounds in Pittsburg. Tom Ragonese, special projects manager for the county, told commissioners he was still in the process of preparing specifications for the demolition of the structure on the north side of town.
“It should be within the next few weeks, we should have those ready to go,” Ragonese said. “We're also in the process of getting the utilities disconnected so we don't have to worry about those whenever we're ready for the demolition.”
The Crawford County Mental Health Dept. occupies offices in a small annex attached to the old nursing building, where it provides case management services for its clients. County workers will disconnect the annex from the remainder of the structure prior to the demolition of the bulk of the structure to avoid any damage to the Mental Health offices, Ragonese said.
Commissioner Moody said he was pleased Ragonese is making progress with the planned demolition. The building, which is owned by the county, is both unsafe and unsightly, he said.
“We need to keep moving forward on this,” Moody said. “It is something of a health hazard. And it's definitely an eye-sore.”
Commissioner McGeorge agreed: “We jump on other property owners about buildings we have to tear down because they don't look good. We need to look in our own back yard.”