City will use CodeRed in emergencies 12-13-2006
From
the Plainview Daily Herald
12/13/2006
By RICHARD ORR
Herald Correspondent
Following a lengthy discussion at Tuesday
night’s meeting, the city council agreed to a one-year contract
with the CodeRed emergency communications phone system at a cost of
$10,000.
The council split 5-2 on the issue, with councilmembers Kelvin Tipton
and John Bertsch voting no and Ron Trusler absent. Bertsch indicated that
with the present emergency-warning systems in place, he felt the CodeRed
system would be redundant. Tipton indicated problems with its cost.
CodeRed is a computerized system that calls residents in the event of
emergencies ranging from storms and chemical spills to jail breaks
and Amber Alerts. It has multi-lingual capability. The contract allows 30,000
“call minutes,” with a charge of 33 cents per minute over that limit. There
is no charge to residents and the system can be linked to cell phones.
In an hourlong Internet and conference-call hookup, CodeRed president and
CEO Brian Davis answered council questions as he outlined the system’s
capabilities and said more than 50 Texas cities have bought it, with
another 80 or so showing interest in it. Nationwide, 500 cities and
counties are hooked up to it. Most calls average 30 to 35 seconds.
Davis said the system is 100 percent Web-based and had its
beginning with the firestorms that swept through the Everglades eight
years ago.
There is no need for the city to purchase equipment or software, and it
can distinguish between a human voice and an answering machine. It
can place 1,000 calls a minute to the city as a whole or be
pinpointed to any neighborhood or area city officials deem necessary.
As long as the city remains linked to the system, Davis said the $10,000
annual cost will never increase.
“It’s the same price every year,” he noted, adding that it also has
hearing-impaired capability and that the city is not charged for “hangups.”
Councilman Roland Nash called it “a really great deal and way of
informing our citizens of emergencies.”
Davis cited one example where a sleeping family was alerted to a tornado
when “the phones woke everyone in the house. It’s just one tool in
the toolbox” — a reference to Bertsch’s question about redundancy. The
system is expected to be up and running within 30 days.
In other business, the council accepted Gardner Chevrolet’s low bid
of $133,376 for seven new police cars, Warren Caterpillar’s low bid of
$249,500 for a new replacement landfill compactor and Lubbock Truck Sales’
bid of $125,796 for a replacement garbage truck.
They also accepted Plainview Housing Authority’s annual report by PHA Vice
Chairman Brandon Brownlee in a power-point presentation. The city agency
operates two low-rent housing units: Date Street Housing and the
Courtyard Apartments, formerly the Barrington Apartments on 24th Street.
Both properties are paid for and revenues have been increasing over the
years, along with numerous improvements. Net assets totaled $883,178 at the
close of fiscal 2006, up 0.1 percent. Revenues were up 4 percent, to
$748,152, with expenses totaling $762,783, up 5 percent. Cash —
including bank accounts and CDs — amounted to $524,424.
Rent at Date Street’s 156 units ranges from $250 to $475. The 48
units at Courtyard range from $440 to $495. HUD is available on all PHA units.
(Contact Richard Orr at royko@sptc.net)
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