07/17/2006 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council July 17, 2006 Page 13 Mr. Buckholtz asked if there were any comments. Mr. Brett explained that the auditors have started reviewing the books from last year as of the beginning of last week. Roll Call: AYES: All NAYS: None Motion Carried Expenditure Authorized Motion to authorize expenditure in an amount not to exceed $35,000.00 to Highway Advisory Radio System for community radio station. Mrs. Mills, seconded by Mr. Saponaro, made a motion to authorize expenditure in an amount not to exceed $35,000.00 to Highway Advisory Radio System for a community radio station. Council President Buckholtz asked if there was any discussion. Chief Mohr reported that this was brought to Council in June. What this is is a community-based radio system that can be used for civil defense, community information and activities for our residents. How it works is that it is an A.M. radio station that broadcasts in the 1600 megacycle range. It has 80 minutes worth of material that can be broadcast. In normal operations, it can do everything from leaf pick-up, pool hours, public safety announcements on children's safety, fire safety issues, anything related to Council regardless of the event. It is a community radio station. In the event of an emergency such as a weather warning, it would switch over and broadcast national weather service information. In the case the siren went off, people would eventually learn to turn to the radio station to get pertinent information from evacuation routes or weather information such as notification of a blizzard coming. The main issue is that it would also notify our volunteers in our mass inoculation program on where and when to report. Other communities that have this are Solon, Beachwood and Pepper Pike. Lakewood just purchased one. They are very successful with the communities that these things are now working for. It would be placed at the intersection of Ridgebury at S.O.M. on middle school. property because it would have best coverage because of higher ground. It has an approximate range of five miles which would extend well out past our territory. We can pick up Pepper Pike's signal from the fire station very easily, so the range is extended. Other communities which are interested in assisting us with this is Gates Mills, the Mayfield Schools and Highland Heights. Your approval on this project is requested. Mayor Rinker added that we should try to encourage more users and prorate the costs accordingly. We will coordinate a sign up period to get other entities on board. Mr. Buckholtz asked if this is a one-time charge. Chief Mohr indicated it is. The unit uses a very minimal power supply and it uses the telephone line to activate or a cellular telephone in an emergency to change the messages. Chief Mohr passed out a schedule that Pepper Pike used for last November showing the type of announcements that can go on this unit. Mr. Marquardt asked if there is any way to measure how many people would use it. Chief Mohr responded that Pepper Pike has had excellent results. He worked with the Chief over at Pepper Pike and the Chief of Beachwood. The community has immediate feedback. For example, Pepper Pike put it in to effect last August. They changed leaf pick up schedules and