-`          PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND BUDGET:

 

The Gazelle Fire Protection District is the host agency for this Regional Assistance to Firefighters Grant proposal for 2005. The following Volunteer Fire Departments and Non Affiliated EMS Organizations are signatory to a Memorandum of Intent.

 

FIRE AGENCIES

 

                        Gazelle FPD *** Host Agency

530-435-2331

 

Butte Valley FPD                     Castella FPD                Copco Lake FPD

530-398-4688                         530-235-2409             530-459-3871

 

Dorris City FD             Dunsmuir City FD         Etna City FD

530-397-2070                         530-235-2551             530-467-5110

 

Fort Jones City FD                   Grenada FPD               Hammond Ranch Fire Co

530-468-2178                         530-436-2200             530-938-3552

 

Hilt Fire Company                    Hornbrook FPD           Klamath River Fire Co

541-488-1768                         530-475-3144             530-496-3361

 

Lake Shastina CSD                  Mayten FPD                Montague FPD

541-938-3751                         530-459-3296             530-459-3071

 

Mt Shasta FPD                        Mt. Shasta City FD      Mount Shasta Vista Fire Co.

530-926-3909                         530-859-7546             530-459-0855

 

Pleasant Valley Fire Co            Scott Valley FPD         Salmon River Fire & Rescue Co

530-397-2205                         530-468-2434             530-462-4605

 

Seiad Valley Fire Co.               South Yreka FPD         Tennant CSD

530-496-3512                         530-842-1477             530-398-4709

 

Tulelake FPD                           Weed City FD              Yreka City FD

530-667-2997                         530-938-5030             530-841-2383

 

NON AFILLIATED EMS

Etna Ambulance           Butte Valley Ambulance            Happy Camp Ambulance

530-467-5525                         530-397-2105             530-493-2643


Replacement of communications equipment to meet the FCC requirements for narrow band capable FM including mobile radios, hand held radios, pagers, base stations, upgrading four mountain top radio relays and the addition of two mountain top radio relays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cost breakdown is as follows:

 

Units Requested

Type of Equipment

Cost per Unit

Total

156

Mobile Radios

$1601

$249,756

389

Hand-Held Radios

$814

$316,646

383

Hand-held Chargers

$40

  $15,320

568

Pagers

$341

$193,688

17

Base Stations

$3,330

  $56,100

4

Mobile Relay Ugrades

$8500

  $34,000

2

Additional Mobile Relay Sites

$16,000

  $32,000

2

Laptop Computers for programming

$2000

    $4000

1

Audit–OMB-A-133

$5000

    $5000

 

 

Sub Total

$907,260

 

     California Sales

Tax @ 7.25%

 $65,766

 

 

Total

$973,036

 

Equipment Total           $973.036

Federal Share               $924,384

Applicants Share          $  48,652

 

FINANCIAL NEED:

 

Although this grant is hosted by the Gazelle Fire Protection District, it will actually serve the communications needs of 28 fire and 3 EMS agencies within Siskiyou County. The fire departments receiving this grant are all volunteer, rural in nature, and range from a tax based entity, to those departments that receive funding entirely through donations. A wholesale change out of communications equipment would be impossible due to the cost.

 

As an example, the Gazelle Fire Protection District is a tax based fire department that received $14,457 in 2004 from tax based funds and donations. The change out to narrow band FM alone would require them to expend 50% of their budget. The implementation of CAL-OSHA safety requirements for the volunteer fire services in conjunction with the rising cost of state-of-the-art fire equipment and workers compensation insurance has increased the cost of doing business significantly. These circumstances have placed considerable strain on already financially challenged fire agencies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COST/BENEFIT:

                                                                        General Information

 

Our countywide 911 alarm and dispatch center is interagency and staffed by personnel from the United States Forest Service USFS, California Department of Forestry CDF and  local fire control dispatchers. The USFS radio system has been changed to narrow band effective January 1, 2005 as required by NTIA. The timeline for CDF to change its system has not been identified; however, it will most likely occur prior to the date set forth by FCC’s mandate. As local fire agencies are currently dispatched on CDF frequencies, the operational issues of incompatibility will occur when the change is made to narrow band. Local government agencies require the equipment capabilities of today’s broad band communications, along with those of tomorrow’s narrow band interoperability issues.

 

Geographically, Siskiyou County is approximately 108 miles wide and 60 miles in length. The countywide population is approximately 46,000. For the year 2004, jurisdictions dispatched out of the command center responded to a total of 5569 incidents.

 

                                                Benefits of Funding and Consequences of Not Funding

 

On January 1, 2005 the National Telecommunications and Information Agency NTIA required all federal agencies to utilize VHF narrow band radio frequencies. Because California has one of the finest mutual aid systems in the nation, all agencies including federal, state, and local government work together on a regular basis at the local, regional, and state level. In Siskiyou County, particularly during the summer fire season, all fire agencies participate in automatic and mutual aid. The federal government’s January 1st requirement has created a communications incompatibility issue between federal and local government fire agencies all over the nation in general and within Siskiyou County in particular. This is due to the fact that most local fire departments within Siskiyou County operate communications equipment that is not narrow band FM capable.

 

Since the passage of SB 1207 in 1999, which mandated compliance with CAL-OSHA safety requirements, safety issues are of the highest priority for all fire agencies in California. As such, communications interoperability is mandatory to meet these regulations. Communications equipment lacking interoperability has the potential to create serious safety and communications issues between federal and local government fire agencies in Siskiyou County. The state fire agency, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) which operates within the state of California and specifically within Siskiyou County recently upgraded its entire fleet of fire apparatus with mobile radios capable of narrow band FM. All equipment purchased through this program would be the same equipment utilized by CDF and would be operationally set up in the same way, allowing the participating fire departments to be compatible with federal and state radio equipment now, and Federal regulations in the future.  

 

There are 28 Chief Officer Vehicles, 125 fire apparatus including water tenders, rescue vehicles, fire engines, and utility vehicles. Additionally there are 8 non-affiliated EMS ambulances. There are a total of 389 seated positions available on these apparatus, and a population of almost 550 volunteer firefighters.

 

The county wide fire department average is as follows:

Vehicles /Department                Seated positions           Vol. Firefighters/Department    

                        4                                              15                                            18                   

                       

Benefits                                                                                  Consequences

 

            The ability to communicate with agencies                                   Unable to communicate with Federal                 that have already converted to narrow band                         Agencies such as the USFS, BLM, and                                                                                                             others

                                               

            Enhance Firefighter safety and health                                         Risk firefighter safety and health due to

                                                                                                            The inability to communicate

           

           

            Provides funding for volunteer fire companies                Most volunteer fire companies will not

            to purchase state of the art radios.                                             Be able to afford new communications

           

Compliance with FCC, NIMS, and CAL-OSHA                      Non- compliant with mandatory regulations

           

 

OPERATIONAL OUTCOME:

 

The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that public safety agencies become narrow band FM compliant by 2018. Although this requirement would seem to give agencies sufficient time to migrate to the newer technology, the reality is that with federal agencies switching to narrow band as of January 1, 2005, the current radio systems utilized by local government fire departments are not capable of effectively communicating on or with federal agencies such as the United States Forest Service.

 

Additionally, the recently enacted National Incident Management System (NIMS) requires communications interoperability as one of its tenets. The funding of this grant would allow all fire agencies within Siskiyou County to operate equipment that is narrow band FM capable, and thus the CAL-OSHA safety requirements, communications, and NIMS issues would be addressed.

 

Mobile Radios

Departments in the County rely on obsolete VHF radios that are incompatible with today’s standards of multi-channel, CTCSS and narrow band capabilities. In some instances, the older radios are not capable of being programmed to meet the needs of additional frequencies because of outdated or non existent programming devices.

 

Hand Held Radios 

Portable radios are personal protective equipment, and should be required for every firefighter at the scene of an incident. However, this is neither practical nor affordable, therefore at each seated position of an apparatus a hand held radio should be made available for interoperability during mutual and automatic aid incidents. This grant request would provide a minimum standard of one hand-held radio for each seated position on an apparatus. 

 

Pagers

Departments still rely on the crystal controlled notification devices of ten years ago, which by today’s standard,   are obsolete and incompatible with narrow band reception. Additionally, with the older pagers, repairs can become difficult due to lack of production. These obsolete pagers can take months to be repair, if able to be repaired at all, leaving departments with a shortage of alerting devices. Also, the newer, state-of-the-art pagers have the capability of broad band and narrow band reception.

 

Base Stations   

Siskiyou County is almost entirely a mountainous environment which can make communications problematic. In the event of a large scale disaster, communities can be cut off and the fire department can become the contact point for communications with the outside world. In addition, fire station locations can be utilized as temporary locations for the Area Command to function. This need requires amplified radio transmissions for communicating.

 

 

 

Mobile Relay Upgrade

The current County Command mobile relay (repeater) system is broad band and will required an upgrade to narrow band to be compliant with the new FCC regulations. There are four such relay towers within Siskiyou County.

 

Additional Relay Sites

In order to maximize the radio coverage of the County Command system within the entire County, two additional relay sites are needed. Areas of the county are obscured by mountainous terrain and do not receive adequate signals from the existing towers sites, thus leaving departments serving rural communities unable communicate with the dispatch center.

 

Laptop Computers

Complete programming of all mobile radios, hand held radios and pagers will require two laptop computers with software. Due to the needed quantities of radios and pagers in the County and the distances between the agencies, two laptop computers are requested to best serve and enable timely programming and service needs for all agencies.

 

STATEMENT OF EFFECT

 

The funding of this grant would allow for the continuation of the safety and service goals of the County and the volunteer fire service in Siskiyou County. The Gazelle Fire Protection District and the fire service agencies within Siskiyou County thank the Department of Homeland Security, the Office for Domestic Preparedness and the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program for giving us the opportunity to participate in this program. Thank you for your commitment to the fire service.