CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Olson called the meeting to order at 7:11 PM

ROLL CALL

Board members present:

Chairman Olson, Vice Chair Riddle, Bowman, Feithen, Leoni, Rosemier, and Russell.

Board members absent: Pettit, Suppeland, Riddle – arrived at 7:21

Guests Present: Lt. Al Newby, DeKalb County Sheriff's Police, Brent Tillman, DeKalb Police Department; Glenna Johnson, Geo-Comm.; Jim Tollaksen, Verizon; Pat Colford, Somonauk Fire Department; Jay Van Landuyt, Hinckley Fire Department; Brad Engel, Hinckley Fire Department; Don Frederick, Sandwich Fire Department; Tom Ciciora, Sandwich EMA; Ed Hecathorn, Leland Fire Department; Frank Ottengheime. Shabbona Fire Department; Greg Grandgeorge, Somonauk Fire Department.

Also Present: Christine Johnson, DeKalb County Treasurer; Charles Kross, Coordinator

AGENDA

The Chairman asked for any amendments to the agenda.  There were none.  A motion to approve the agenda was made by Russell and seconded by Rosemier. There was no discussion.  The motion passed. 

MINUTES

A motion to approve the minutes of the February 4, 2004 meeting was made by Feithen and seconded by Rosemier.  The motion passed. 

OLD BUSINESS:

¨      Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Johnson presented the February Financial Summary.

A motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report was made by Russell and seconded by Leoni.

The motion passed.

·        Bills Not Previously Approved:

Hinckley Fire Department requested $1258 for a station radio encoder.  Chief Jay Van Landuyt explained that during the large church fire in Sycamore the County Fire Radio crashed, and Hinckley was unable to call out their firefighters.  The Chief said that someone had told Hinckley that they couldn’t have an encoder to page their firefighters.  Tillman said that DeKalb Police Department will soon be able to backup the County Fire Radio on all fire calls, but neither he nor Lt. Newby could see of any reason why the local agencies shouldn’t have local encoders.

Russell made a motion to approve of the Hinckley Fire Department request.  Riddle seconded.  There was no further discussion. The motion passed unanimously.

·        Bills:

Starved Rock Communications -  Fire Maint.                                        632.50

Starved Rock Communications – Fire Maint.                                         727.50

Sprint                                                                                                      26.90

Language Line                                                                                       183.80

Verizon                                                                                                  113.17

Verizon                                                                                             14,955.95

Verizon                                                                                             22,898.52

Office Max                                                                                                8.82

AT&T                                                                                                     25.24

            Sikich/Gardner – audit fees                                                                  3,000.00

            PowerPhone                                                                                         2023.00

            Tri-Star Communications – Lee pagers                                                 1,200.00

            Communications Direct                                                                         1,258.00

Total                                                                                    $24,154.88                            

A motion to pay the bills was made by Bowman and seconded by Riddle .  A roll call vote was taken:  Bowman  Y  Feithen   Y   Hanson Y  Leoni Y  Pettit  Y  Rosemier  Y  Russell Y  Riddle Y Olson Y.   The motion passed unanimously.

¨      Mapping

Jim Tollakson of Verizon addressed the Board regarding the mapping project.  Benny Escutia has been named as the Project Director for Verizon, and Christine McMullen,  Project  Director for MicroData GIS.  Contracts have been signed and are mailed.  Some of the hardware has arrived.  It is being held at the DeKalb County Sheriff's Police.  There will be regular conference calls to keep everyone updated on the progress.

NEW BUSINESS

¨      Participating Agency Requests -

¨      PSAP Administrators' Report -  No report

¨      Persons to be Heard from the Floor -

Fire Chief Pat Colford of the Somonauk Fire Department expressed concern that their Minitor II pagers were breaking down, and there are few parts available.  These pagers were purchased originally from 911 funds.  He said he would like to see all of the pagers replaced at the rate of 5 – 6 per year, rather than the 3 currently allotted.  Former Board Member Greg Grandgeorge said that most of the departments had purchased the Minitor IIs and were all experiencing the same problem.  Feithen said that the Board budgets a line item for pager replacements at the beginning of the fiscal year, which is December 1.  Russell said it is something to be considered at budget time, not during the year.  Rosemier, after determining costs said that it would take approximately 7 years to replace all of the pagers at the current budgeting rate.  It would take approximately $7500 more per year to replace them in a 5 year plan.  Feithen suggested that the fire agencies budget more for such items, as the DeKalb and Sycamore Departments do.  This led to a funding/lack of funding discussion.  Former Board member Frank Ottengheime reminded the Board that the pagers are essential for getting the call to the agencies, which, he said, is the Board’s responsibility.  The discussion then moved into interoperability issues, as well as the entire Fire Radio system.  Riddle suggested that Newby, Russell, Riddle, and Tillman recommend to the Board, an independent engineer, to look at the system and recommend what should be done to address these issues.  They will also try to determine what grant monies are available.

¨      Coordinator’s Report  

1. A letter was received from Verizon informing that we have had a decrease in the wireline and increase in wireless access line count.  Changes were effective on the January bill.  Kross said he would contact Deb Crossen of Verizon to get more details.
2. An invitation was received from the DeKalb County Township Officials inviting Board members to the Spring meeting on Thursday, April 15 at South Pointe in DeKalb.  Kross has further information for those interested.
3. Safe Kids – June 5 – Expo at Menards parking lot.  They would like a Telecommunicator with a telephone setup to enable children to make 911 calls.  Kross said that in the past, the Board would reimburse the Government entity for overtime costs for TCs.  He said that there is money budgeted for public information costs.  The Board owns equipment for the kids to make test calls.   Russell moved for the Board to pay for overtime for TCs for the Safe Kids Expo.  Riddle seconded.  There was no further discussion.  The motion passed unanimously.

ADJOURNMENT

Rosemier moved to adjourn the meeting, and was seconded by Leoni.  The motion passed.   The meeting adjourned at 8:25 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

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Charles Kross, Coordinator