August 19, 1998
Meeting was called to order by Janelle Pepple, President, at 1:00 P.M.(MT). Round Table introductions were made(see enclosure for members in attendance). Thanks to Gary Kostelecky for setting up this meeting.
Update on APCO Activities:
Lyle Gallagher, State Radio Director & National APCO 1ST Vice President, gave update on APCO Activities. The National APCO Conference in 1999 will be held in Minneapolis, Minn. during the month of August. North Dakota got the APCO Award for most members per population.Mobile Data Terminal Project Update:
The Motorola Company has been issued a Letter of Intent to Award Bid. Right now State Radio & the Motorola Company are going through the bid specs to verify that Motorola understands all of what is required of them if they are awarded this bid. Then once this process is through & if Motorola is awarded this bid, then they will start an implementation process in a series of phases. These phases will include installing the required towers & mobile data terminal equipment. Testing of this equipment should start in April, 1999 & the project should be completed July 1, 1999. Once this project is completed, then this system will be available to the Counties throughout the state to use.Public Safety Communications Task Force Update:
Next meeting will be September 25, 1998, Federal Engineering should have the results of the surveys completed. If anyone is interested in attending any of these meetings or to be on this Task Force get your name & phone number to Lyle Gallagher’s office.Cellular One Presentation:
Carol Lindsey, Western Wireless Regional Manager, gave a presentation on Cellular One history & technology. Some of the highlights of this presentation include the following. Right now in North Dakota 20-30% of 911 calls are made by cellular phones. Cellular One Towers presently cover 90% of North Dakota’s population. Regular phone lines are still the primary phone system used today, but cellular phones are used to subsidize these regular phone lines. If the regular phone system goes out it can be switched to a cellular phone system. By the year 2000, 40% of our nation’s population will use a cellular phone. Carol stressed the need for educating our counties on what happens when you dial 911 on a cellular phone & Carol would help anyone that would like to do this for their county.PCS...is a digital type of cellular phone, Cellular One is analog. Advantages to the PCS system is, it has a longer battery life, secure calls & comes with a caller id. Disadvantages of the PCS system include it’s limited area of use because there are not enough PCS towers in the state at this time.
Cellular One has a portable tower that can be brought into an area that has regular phone lines down or has an emergency and would like to have this cellular help. During the Grand Forks Flood, Cellular One brought in this portable tower to provide full cellular capabilities to aid emergency personnel.
Carol stressed the importance of the 911 Coordinators to test their County’s cellular towers routing of 911 calls. Drive around your County & make a 911 call from your cellular phone, see where this call goes. If you need to have the routing changed then you need to get ahold of Rick Hessinger at State Radio. When you make these test calls, check both "A" & "B" sides of the tower. To see which side you are on & to switch sides do the following:
Hit "RCL *" on your cellular phone. This will show you which side you are on...to switch sides just hit "*" again. To go back to original side hit the "*" again. Please note that in North Dakota, the "A" side is always Cellular One, & the "B" side is Airtouch in the east & Comnet in the west. (Please note that if you use a side that is not your Cellular Company’s side...you will be charged a roaming charge.) Carol discussed roaming charges and advised anyone that wants to know what their cellular company charges to get ahold of them and find out. There are a lot of packages available on roaming charges from different Cellular Companies. Carol feels that the 911 Coordinator /PSAP Managers need to know as much about cellular technology as the cellular people. We need to educate our public on how cellular phones work. Talked about developing a education video on 911 Wireless Technology that would aid in education of the Public.
Tour of the Consolidated Telephone Cooperative in Dickinson :
Rhonda Dukart, Marketing Manager, gave us a tour of the Consolidated Telephone Cooperative.
The ND Attorney General’s Opinion on Century Code 57-40.6-07:
Lyle Gallagher will request the Attorney General’s Opinion on Century Code 57-40.6-07, which states "Use of furnished information. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers provided to a 911 public service answering point under section 57-40.6-06 are private data and may be used only for verifying the location or identity, or both, for response purposes only, of a person calling a 911 answering point for emergency help. The information furnished may not be used or disclosed by the public service answering point or its agents or employees for any other purpose except under a court order.This opinion will cost approximately $1,000 & State Radio has agreed to absorb this cost.
Insurance Reserve Fund Grant Update:
Rick Hessinger talked with the President of the Insurance Reserve Fund Board. The President said that if we write them a new letter they will review it. But he said that they have limited funds. This grant is for $10,000 and would be used to buy laptop computers and other materials needed to have a mobile classroom for teaching the required 911 classes around the state. Rick Hessinger & Mary Senger will get together with Derek Hanson to write a new letter for the Grant from the Insurance Reserve Fund.Meeting adjourned at 5:30 P.M. (MT).
August 20, 1998
Meeting was called to order at 9:00 A.M.(MT) by Janelle Pepple, President.
Tim Wiedrich with the State Health Department cancelled, but will be at next meeting.
Legislative Committee Report:
Jerry Bergquist gave the following report on the Legislative Committee’s three Areas of Concern: 1. The committee’s present priority is the wireless issues. At the last meeting they talked about a cellular phone 911 Access Tax. This 911 Tax would be justified by the simple fact that you can dial 911 on a cellular phone and access a 911 Dispatch Center. Carol Lindsey, Cellular One, stated that she thinks the industry would go with some kind of cellular tax, but that a $1.00 charge would be to much.Lyle Gallagher thinks that the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) could substitute as the 911 Governor’s Committee, to keep the 911 Standards & Guidelines updated. Lyle said that he would approach the SERC with this idea & the Committee had told him to go ahead. After some discussion, Dana King made the motion to not have Lyle Gallagher approach the SERC. Tom Sorenson seconded this motion. All members in attendance were in favor. Motion was passed. Jerry Bergquist said he would call Lyle and ask him not to approach the SERC. Motion was made by Dana King to have the ND 911 Association adopt the 911 Standards & Guidelines as recommended Guidelines for 911 Dispatch Centers. Becky Ault seconded this motion. All members in attendance were in favor. Motion was passed. 2. Senate Bill #1015 mandates State Radio Counties to follow the 911 Standards & Guidelines without the ability to include updates. The Legislative Committee would like to look into changing this mandate. 3. The Legislative Committee would also like to look at the 911 Laws in effect at this time and see if they require updating.
Business Meeting:
Business meeting was called to order by Janelle Pepple, President.
Old Business:
Corrections to last minutes are as follows: Page 1, line 11, under "May 14, 1998," cross out "all 24-hour Dispatch Centers within the State," and put in "only participating agencies. Page 1, line 10, under "Business Meeting," cross out "to be introduced in the next legislative session," and put in "in that the purposed legislation be given to the Association of Counties and League of Cities to be introduced into the Legislation."Page 2, line 1, add after Gary Kostelecky, "and Ken Halverson. Jerry Bergquist volunteered Rick Hessinger."
Motion made by Al Hanson to approve the minutes of the last meeting. Fred Debowey seconded this motion. All members in attendance were in favor. Motion was passed.
Financial Report, balance was given as $3,934.67. (See Enclosure for complete Financial Report).
Sherwood Monroe made a motion to appoint Al Hanson to be the Representative from our association to sit on the State Trauma Committee. Becky Ault seconded this motion. All members in attendance were in favor. Motion was passed.
New Business:
Jerry Bergquist reported that in the ND Counties Records Manual, put out by the Association of Counties & updated in 1997, it mandates all 911 Centers to keep all 911 Records for three years. Check with your Auditor for this manual.
The Year 2000 Compliance: As a 911 Association do we need to be involved in this?? All 911 Coordinators need to check with their suppliers of computer hardware & software to see if they will be effected in the year 2000.
The suggestion was made to have the business meeting some time other than at the end of the quarterly meeting.
Motion was made by Del Johnson to have the 911 Wireless Committee dissolved. Mary Senger seconded this motion. All members in attendance were in favor. Motion was passed.
A 911 Standards & Guidelines Committee was established, members include Carmen Reed, Mary Senger, Brent Nelson & Del Johnson. This Committee will go through the present 911 Standards & Guidelines and see if anything needs to be updated or looked at. Please look over the 911 Standards & Guidelines, and call any of the members on this committee to give your input. (See enclosure for last revision of the 911 Standards & Guidelines).
Becky Ault made a motion to have the next meeting October 12-13, 1998, in Fargo. This motion was seconded by Steve Delzer. After some discussion, this motion was rescinded by Becky Ault and the second to this motion was rescinded by Steve Delzer. Motion was dropped.
Next Meeting will be setup by Janelle Morgan w/UND-Lk Region & held in the Spirit Lake Casino & Resort at Devils Lake on October 20 - 21st , 1998.
Round Table Discussion.
Meeting adjourned at 12:00 P.M. (MT).
Respectfully submitted
Carmen Reed
Secretary/Treasurer