Meeting Type: BCC Regular Meeting
Meeting Date: 1/7/2025
Item Status: New
From: Brian Peacock, CIS Director
Submitted by: Susan Marino, CIS Business Manager
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ITEM TITLE
Title
Baldwin County Board of Education - Memorandum of Understanding for Baldwin County Public Safety Microwave Network
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STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Approve and authorize the Chairman to execute the Memorandum of Understanding between the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBOE) and Baldwin County Commission (BCC) for the BCBOE to use the Baldwin County Public Safety Microwave Network for its school bus radio system.
This MOU is effective upon the date of full execution by the duly authorized representatives of the parties to this MOU and the governing bodies of the respective parties. This MOU shall remain in full force for no longer than three (3) years, expiring January 31, 2028, or until terminated with or without cause by either party upon 60 days written notice.
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Background: The Baldwin County Board of Education Transportation Department maintains a DMR Mototrbo trunk radio system with four RF sites for the school bus communications. These sites are connected by a wireless VPN using AT&T cellular routers. Occasionally, when a short radio transmission occurs after a long period of silence, the wireless VPN doesn't provide the path for the first part of a call to all of the other sites. This problem is caused by the lack of bandwidth availability from the AT&T Cellular Network.
Baldwin County Commission maintains a P25 Public Safety Radio system that uses four shared RF sites (Spanish Fort, Rabun, Magnolia Springs and Seminole) with the BCBOE school bus radio system. BCBOE is requesting to use the Baldwin County Public Safety Microwave Network located at those RF sites to provide connectivity for the bus system. A VLAN and a total of 300K of bandwidth will be needed at each site.
BCBOE used fiber to connect to the Baldwin County Microwave system in order to reduce the possibility of lightning damage at each site. BCBOE added a DCB UT3302 Box to Gopher hill to add a redundant path from Rabun RF site to Spanish Fort RF site via APT. This benefits both the P25 and the school bus systems by allowing a bypass in case the normal path fails.
Previous Commission action/date: 11/17/2017 - Approved MOU with BCBOE -Baldwin County Public Safety Microwave Network.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Total cost of recommendation: N/A
Budget line item(s) to be used: N/A
If this is not a budgeted expenditure, does the recommendation create a need for funding? N/A
LEGAL IMPACT
Is legal review necessary for this staff recommendation and related documents?
Contract Template previously reviewed by County Attorney
Reviewed/approved by: Brad Hicks, County Attorney
Additional comments: N/A
ADVERTISING REQUIREMENTS
Is advertising required for this recommendation? N/A
If the proof of publication affidavit is not attached, list the reason: N/A
FOLLOW UP IMPLEMENTATION
For time-sensitive follow up, select deadline date for follow up: N/A
Individual(s) responsible for follow up: Commission Administration - have the Chairman execute the MOU and email a copy to:
Louise Coe - lcoe@bcbe.org
CC: Eddie Tyler - etyler@bcbe.org, Brian Peacock, Susan Marino
Action required (list contact persons/addresses if documents are to be mailed or emailed): N/A
Additional instructions/notes: Administration - Terminate previous MOU (Contract #7511) with expiration date as 1/6/2025 and add fully executed MOU to Contracts