Agenda - Council Work Session - 05/01/2012

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A study that is more detailed is needed to determine how increased levels of service will fit within the shared services model and how the costs would affect the individual municipality's budget share. V. Other Operational Issues 1. Software used by Fire Service Currently across Anoka County Fire Departments there are 3 distinct software being used: • Fire House • Image Trend • SBM Anoka County Police and Fire agencies have secured funding to consolidate the records management system at the county to allow all depts., both Police and Fire, to use the same records system and in turn share information across community lines. To date, Police and Law Enforcement can share but the Fire Service cannot. It has not been decided if the new system will allow multiple software's to be used by the Fire Service. This system is expected to go online within 2 years. As related to the Shared Services group, both Fire House and Image Trend are used, although it would be essential for communities involved to use the same software within all facilities. 2. Radios If the merger of Fire Departments were to occur, there would have to be updates made to the communications devices for the various fire departments. The departments have separate tactical channels in the truck and portable radios. The tactical channels allow cities to talk within their own cities and stay off the main channel. Then all the fire fighters carry fire pagers. These pagers are set up based on the city tones and station tones. If the merger were to occur, the pagers that the fire fighters carry would need to be updated to have a fire department "all call" feature added. Lastly the base radios on the trucks and in the stations would have to receive program upgrades as well. Other complications that may arise is based on the sheer size of the new department, potentially over 160 square miles, there may be a need for 2 TAC channels. This would be something that would have to be worked on. 3. Security Fire Hall Security is accomplished by key pads for Ramsey and Nowthen, while Oak Grove and St. Francis use key fobs. Services for the fobs are purchased through a security company which has a significant cost. Although both systems are effective, a standardization of security would be desirable. 4. Equalization of Training Issues Working together in a "shared fire service" would allow the firefighters in the entire group to be trained equally, both in level of training and method of training. One instructor could train the entire group on a 10