SOUTHWEST MN User Committee
6:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
Lyon County
Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Call to Order
Intros/County/City represented
Approval of Minutes, NOV.
Approval of Agenda
Reports/Updates
a.. ARMER updates (Steve Borchardt)
b.
c.
6. Old Business
a. Update of info/plans by county user committee members
b. Discussion on radio equipment needed to communicate interagency
c.
d.
7. New Business
a. Air Ambulance procedure (Brandon)
b. Fleet Map (talk group position)
c.
8. General Discussion issues (to be determined by Committee Members)
9. Upcoming Meetings
a. Feb
b. March
c.
10. Adjournment
Southwest Radio User/Owners & Operators Meeting
User Chairperson – Jeff Lammers
Owners/Operators Chairperson – Brandon Hendrickson
January 22, 2013 – Lyon Co LEC
Attendance signed in: Cottonwood Co – Paul Polz, Jackson Co- Brandon Henderickson; Lincoln Co – Amber Scholten,
Dustin Hauschild; Lyon Co- Tim Anderson, Tim DeSaer; Murray Co – Joe Reith, Donna Mollema, Kevin Haney, Arl
Weinrebe, Nobles Co – Jay Clarke; Redwood Co –Jim Sandgren; Rock Co –Joan Foote; Yellow Medicine Co – Alec
Dirnberger, Steven Reiten
The meeting was brought to order by Chairperson, Jeff Lammers. Our normal around the room introduction was held.
Jeff stated that if anyone is not getting the emails he is sending out, to contact Deb following the meeting.
Dan Nath will be added to the agenda 7c.
A clarification was made to last to the minutes to last month regarding how the counties received information from the
National Weather Service.
Steve’s clarification is as follows: The protocol as described in the new Standard is that the NWS Office will alert MSP via
the NAWAS phone line. They will advise MSP of the counties to be included in the warning event, the expected duration
of the event and any other information pertinent to the event. MSP will call the counties identified (PSAPs) in the
warning area via their Regional CALL talkgroup. They will conduct a roll call of the counties involved and provide the
warning information. If a county in the warning area does not acknowledge via the regional CALL, MSP will follow up
with a phone call. Counties in the SC Radio Region will then access their NWS office directly via the dedicated NWS
talkgroup for Chanhassen.
Following the clarification, a motion was made by Jay and seconded by Dan Nath to accept the minutes from
November’s meeting. Minutes approved
Old Business
Cottonwood Co: Paul noticed that firemen within his country was struggling a lit with the radios. Felt this would
improve with additional training.
Nobels Co: Most of the fire departments have now narrow banded. Worthington tower is under construction. There is
a delay due to equipment problems. Coverage area should improve once this tower is functioning.
Murray Co: Arl states that the hospital has narrow banded. Everything seems to be working ok. All pagers are narrow
banded but 1 agency.
Tracy Ambulance/Fire: nothing new to report.
Lincoln Co: Working on Control Station
Lyon Co: Agencies up and operating
Rock Co: Having coverage issues. Deputies will cut out in the middle of speaking. Issues are with the portable. So far
this is mostly in the Luvern area.
RACOM – Dispatcher stated that she patched a chase thru main LTAC, but was told it came thru on STAC – possible
program issue.
Yellow Medicine – doesn’t seem to have a priority tower programmed into their radios. They have so many towers their
radio’s pick up.
Echo – Disappointed with 800 system. paging side is very poor with narrow banding. To costly to simulcast.
Redwood Co – Jim state the system is up and running. They are starting to work on a simulcast system.
Gwen – everyone is up and running
Jackson – system is up and running. They are going to simulcast. That won’t be up for a month. Most issues that have
come up are user errors or dispatcher errors. They are working on getting protocols in place. Also need to do some
retraining.
Neighboring RegionsJackson Co doesn’t have South Central call in their radio. Chippewa doesn’t think they have neighboring counties
in their radios. Murray County does have neighboring counties in their radios. They have found it more efficient to
have dispatch patch that to have individuals search. Suggestion was to have large fleet maps available for the individual
agencies to know the layout of the radio.
The question was brought up about new hires to an agencies… and what the expectations are. Currently there is no
expectations. This is something that can be discussed and laid out as a standard or a best practice to develop a
minimum requirement. Motion was made by Jim to table this for further discussion next month. Seconded by Jay.
Motion Carried.
Fleet Map discussion was held regarding position #1 & 16 being call into dispatch. Lyon Co has it set up that way with
position 16 programmed as high priority. Yellow Medicine has and SOA on 16. A motion was made by Marty (Alec) to
recommend a standard that position 1 & 16 would hail dispatch. There was opposition by other Counties expressing
concern that Counties may want flexibility. Following discussion Marty withdrew his motion.
Following the discussion … consensus was for the individual system administrator to decide what way is the best way to
hail their dispatch center. Arl made the motion, Kevin Seconded … carried
There was Air Ambulance procedures on the agenda, however Brandon was looking for specific protocol for his County.
He has already found what he was looking . Was no need for further discussion.
Dan Nath – March/April the HSP dollars become available. Each region is getting $12,000. Dan would like to see
another regional training with the funds. Gwen suggested there be a couple night available to open up the opportunity
for possibility to attend. Jay made a motion to put on another regional training. Kevin seconded. Carried. We will
discuss this more at our February training. Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted ,
Deborah J. Winter
Recording Secretary