Galesburg Reporter

City of Galesburg Knox County Emergency Telephone Systems Board met Sept. 3.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

The regular meeting of the Galesburg/Knox County Emergency Telephone Systems Board (E.T.S.B) was held at 9:00 a.m. in the EOC Auditorium Conference Room at the Public Safety Building, 150 South Broad Street, Galesburg, Illinois.

PRESENT: Police Chief Russell Idle – Law Enforcement- E.T.S.B. Chairman, Randy Hovind – Galesburg Fire Chief, Richard Springer – G.H.A.S., Timothy Robbins of Western Illinois Firefighters Association (WIFA) member, Zachary Crowl – Member-at-Large, Nate Clark and Lyle Little- Motorola Representatives, Amanda Jennings – 911 Coordinator, Cameron LeMaster – Information Systems Technician and Jenni Moser – Secretary II. Also present was Lieutenant Hostens.

ABSENT: Knox County Sheriff Dave Clague– E.T.S.B. Vice Chairman, Jared Hawkinson – Knox County Board Member, Sid Carlson – Member-at-Large, and Robin Davis – Knox County Treasurer

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER: 9:01 a.m. by Chairman Idle. A quorum was declared. Board Member Springer motioned to approve the minutes of the June 18, 2020 meeting. Board Member Crowl gave a second. All were in favor.

APPROVE:

FINANCIAL REPORT: The current fund balance is $2,587,688.78.

Liabilities:

Month         Bills Total

July               $5,332.39

August        $19,028.45

Member Robbins motioned to approve the Financial Report and the Bills.

Member Springer seconded the motion. Motion approved.

REPORTS

AMANDA JENNINGS – Galesburg/Knox County 911 Coordinator

Item #1 – 9-1-1 Call Totals

Month	911 & Admin total	9-1-1 Calls	Cell	Landline	Abandoned
June	11,870	2,099	1,594	244	256
July	12,634	2,118	1,647	220	245
August	11,909	2,038	1,572	234	230

The numbers have remained steady. July was high.

Item #2 Equipment

Phone system – Intrado would not offer a multi-year maintenance agreement due to the age of the current equipment. Amanda received a draft quote for equipment replacement for $306,000. She stated this was as much as the initial purchase. Amanda informed that the State is trying to get contracts with vendors and the state contract might be less. She is also going to look at getting other quotes.

The Dispatch center remodel project – Klingner & Associates did a site visit on September 2, 2020 and FGM Architects are scheduled to visit on the 10th.

Amanda has devoted the past two weeks to the CAD Replacement RFP project. She stated it is close to being ready.

Item #3 Communications Center Currently have:

• Staffing – Dispatch is fully staffed with no trainees. • Training:

o Some of the dispatchers will be attending a Crisis/Peer Support certification training.

o IPSTA conference will be virtual.

NATE CLARK – Motorola

He is working on prepping the GPD squad cars. There will be training on them in about 2 weeks. The backup repeater for Abingdon is needing replaced. Abingdon is having interference over the railroad. They are still receiving pages, but the audio is not clear. Nate and Lyle have been doing a lot of testing and will be sending Amanda the quote for the backup repeater.

Nate said he will be working on the CAD status heads for Galesburg Fire after the meeting. He stated the software is very old and makes it very difficult.

RANDY HOVIND – Galesburg Fire Department

Held conversations with Nate regarding the CAD status heads.

TIM ROBBINS – WIFA

Discussion was held on the appropriate use of the Knox County 911 Dispatch radio frequency for the rural fire agencies.

JARED HAWKINSON – Knox County Board 

ABSENT

SID CARLSON – Member at Large 

ABSENT

RICHARD SPRINGER – G.H.A.S. 

NA

RUSSELL IDLE – Board Chairman - Police Chief

Several people visited the old Maple Street Fire Station to see about using the building as an alternate site for Communications. Chief stated the building is in major disrepair and the cost would be too great to rehab it. He stated that it would be cheaper to find an empty City lot and put up a pre-fab building. Further discussion was held regarding alternate locations.

DAVID CLAGUE – Board Vice Chairman - Knox County Sheriff 

ABSENT

ZACHARY CROWL – Member-at-Large

Stated the County schools were all running either blended or in person options. Galesburg is to start school next week. He said there is some good coming out of this that alternative methods of teaching are being put to use and that in the future the home study might be opened up as an option.

NEW BUSINESS

Base Station for Oak Run

Amanda stated she received the quote for Oak Run for a proper base station. All the pagers and portables have received maintenance. Nate stated the base station would be the only expense for the ETSB. Oak Run would be responsible for any other expenses. The quote from Supreme Radio was $10,884.72.

Member Springer motioned to approve the quote as presented. 

Member Robbins seconded the motion. Motion approved.

Remote for Knoxville:

Amanda provided a quote for a remote replacement for Knoxville Fire Department as they are having sporadic issues and do not always hear dispatches when in the station. The amount of the quote is $3,239.28.

Member Robbins motioned to approve the quote as presented. 

Member Springer seconded the motion. Motion approved.

Phone Issues:

Amanda stated that phone outages occurred on July 27th and August 8, for 12 hours and 20 minutes respectively. Discussion was held regarding the outages, the lack of redundancy, and the lack of a detailed network diagram of the system from CenturyLink.

Member Hovind motioned to have Amanda investigate provider options. 

Member Springer seconded the motion. Motion approved.

Project List:

Discussion was held regarding the projects that Amanda is working on.

CAD replacement

Change phone service

Update phone system

Update connection to rural fire agencies Backup Facility

Comm Center Remodel

NG911

Support Staff:

Chief Idle stated that they are attempting to reorganize the GPD staffing structure since they lost a Captain position. Amanda has taken on a lot more duties, she is working 10-12 hours a day. Idle would like to add a full time Public Safety Clerk that would help free up more of Amanda’s time to work on the projects listed above. The salary, pension, insurance and benefits would come to $45,701.71 annually.

Member Hovind motioned to approve the Board paying the salary for a full time Public Safety Clerk.

Member Springer seconded the motion. Motion approved.

PUBLIC COMMENTS None

Board Member Springer moved to adjourn the meeting which was seconded by Board Member Robbins. All approved adjournment.

https://www.ci.galesburg.il.us/assets/1/20/ETSB_minutes_090320201.PDF