February 5, 2010

The FEMA grant, in the amount of $803,964, will fund nine to thirty 800 MHz VIPER radios for every fire department and rescue squad in Catawba County to complete an Emergency Services project to begin a conversion to the 800 MHz system. The local agencies and Catawba County will share a 20% match of $200,990, with the County paying 15% of the match and local agencies paying 5%.

“This grant will greatly assist our efforts towards reaching the goal of interoperable communications, not just within our county but throughout the region,” said Mark Pettit, Catawba County’s Fire and Rescue Manager. “The new 800MHz system that this grant helps us address will provide better radio coverage throughout the county and even provide coverage in areas that traditionally have had poor coverage. As we finalize the move towards the 800MHz system, this grant will go a long way toward alleviating some of the financial burden for our response agencies.”

“The grant is a direct result of partnerships in the county between the Firefighter’s Association, the Rescue Association, the County Emergency Services and the Communication Center,” said Terry Bledsoe, Catawba County’s Chief Information Officer, who wrote the grant application. “It will allow for the agencies to communicate better within the county and with agencies across the state with the VIPER system. This is a huge step forward for emergency communications in our county.”

“Catawba County would not have received this grant without the support of 10th District U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry, and United States Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr and their respective staffs,” said Kitty Barnes, Chair of the Catawba County Board of Commissioners. “All of the partner agencies are very grateful to our delegation to the United States Congress for their valuable support of our request for funding to meet this vital public safety need.”

The agencies partnering to seek the grant included the Conover Fire Department, Catawba Volunteer Fire Department, Bandys Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department, Claremont Volunteer Fire Department, Cooksville Volunteer Fire Department Hickory Fire Department, Long View Fire Department, Maiden Volunteer Fire Department, Mountain View Volunteer Fire Department, Newton Fire Department, Oxford Volunteer Fire Department, Propst Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department, Sherrills Ford-Terrell Fire-Rescue, St. Stephens Volunteer Fire Department, Catawba Rescue, Claremont Rescue, Hickory Rescue, Maiden Rescue, Newton-Conover Rescue, and Catawba County Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Sherrills Ford-Terrell Fire-Rescue served as the lead agency in applying for the grant.

“This grant will make our communication system across Catawba County better by making it unified,” said Keith Bost, Chief of Sherrills Ford-Terrell Fire and Rescue. “We’re going to be able to move to a better system to supplement local tax dollars with federal funding during the worst economy in sixty years because a team from across Catawba County worked hard to get the funding. We feel firefighter’s lives will be better protected by our use of this system.”

After Catawba County conducted a comprehensive risk assessment of its communications system involving all twenty-one emergency service organizations and eight municipalities, it became apparent that the current communication system lacked the components that would allow all of the agencies to communicate seamlessly with each other, fill the gaps in the current system and promote interoperability with neighboring communities. The primary goal of the project is to improve inter-department communication for the firefighters, rescue squad members and EMS employees and their safety, and provide compatible communications between agencies at multi-agency emergency responses.

Catawba County previously funded infrastructure to upgrade its current VHF communications frequencies to 800 MHz digital communication capabilities. The system is part of a statewide multi-agency voice and data network, under construction by the State of North Carolina, called VIPER (Voice Interoperability Project for Emergency Responders). Catawba County recently installed new radio and console equipment in its 911 Communications Center to support all of the public safety agencies in the county. Catawba County is the primary dispatching agency for all fourteen fire departments, as well as EMS, Rescue and the Sheriff’s Department.

“As far as the fire service is concerned, this will help us adapt to the new communications equipment that Catawba County has put into the Communications Center,” said Conover Fire Chief Mark Hinson, President of the Catawba County Firefighters Association. “The communications with 800 MHz radios are a whole lot clearer, so communication is easier. We’ll be able to communicate a lot easier with a number of agencies such as Hickory Police and the Highway Patrol that are on 800 MHz. But the most important benefit from the grant relates to cost. The costs for all of our departments to buy these radio is so astronomical that we would not be able to do this without having received this grant.”

With the grant funds, the project partners will purchase 24 mobile radios and 356 portable radios. Replacing all mobile and hand held radio equipment is the final step to completing this communication system upgrade.

“This will help alleviate dead areas in our communications network and give us a broader area where we can work,” said Jeff Hendren, Commander of Catawba County Rescue Association.  “On some radio channels in the past, we even had bleed over of radio traffic intended for agencies in other counties, and the 800 MHz system will eliminate this. We’re grateful that we were fortunate enough to get this grant, which will subsidize the cost of improving our system and providing a better level of service for our citizens.”