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CASE# Fe., 4 ANNUAL CONTRACT RENEWAL FOR CIVIL DEFENSE SIREN MAINTENANCE By: Mike Auspos, Police Chief Background: Doradus Corporation does the telemetry and coding maintenance and repair for our storm sirens. Attached is the proposed contract for 1996 which must be entered into by December 1, 1995. They have dropped the time and materials option for this year and offer only a fixed price contract. This contract is somewhat more expensive than that which we have previously had. The time and materials option had been the preference in the past since the system was newer and fewer problems should occur. Now, because most communities in Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey counties use the fixed price methods, Doradus has dropped the time and materials option and offers only the fixed price option. The new contract will amount to $7,548 per year which is approximately twice what had been included in the 1996 budget numbers. In practice, the fixed price method gives us an annual inspection of each site (telemetry portion) and repairs for all wear and tear problems (excludes fires not of internal origin and accidents) as well as the siren monitoring now paid for separately. Batteries are also replaced on a three year rotation basis and the cost for the batteries is now part of the fixed price cost. We have just finished replacing all batteries under the old plan so we will begin to "bank" the replacement costs under the new plan. Currently there is no other vendor who can supply maintenance and/or repair on the specific telemetry unit we use. Hennepin County is exploring some other alternatives to using Doradus and some of those may work for us also. Hennepin County does however have an older system and their needs are quite different from ours. I will talking with Bruce Wojack, Anoka County Civil Defense Coordinator, to see what other alternatives we may have as the contracting also applies to Anoka County agencies. An informal survey to other Anoka County communities seems to indicate that they are happy with paying the bill just to be assured the sirens are functioning and don't appear to be overly interested in exploring other methods. For now however, we need to have a contract for maintenance. As an aside, the payment of $37.00 per siren is due at the beginning of each quarter but the one time "buy-in" clause in the contract will be waived due to our past participation in the time and materials contract option with Doradus. Staff Recommendation: Staff recommends entering to the attached contract for $7,548 per year and if other options become available, exercise the sixty (60) day cancellation clause at such time.