Mountain View County council has approved the implementation of the Alberta First Responder Communication System (AFRRCS) for fire departments in the region.
The move came by way of motion at the July 11 council meeting.
Council also passed a related motion authorizing the CAO to proceed with the purchase of the new system radios in partnership with the Town of Olds providing the purchase amount falls within the approved 2018 budget.
The new system will replace the existing HUB radio system.
AFRRCS is a provincial two-way radio network for first responders. It first became operational in 2016.
In launching the system that year, provincial government officials said the new network would let first responders communicate with each other more effectively through a system of hundreds of radio towers throughout the province.
Prior to the implementation of the network, many police, emergency medical and fire services in Alberta used their own stand-alone radio systems that generally do not communicate with one another.
Mountain View County council's decision to move forward with the changes followed a presentation at the joint area municipality partnership meeting in June.
“For MVC our first priority will be to equip fire departments,” administration said in a briefing note to council. “Our emergency operations centre already has an AFRRCS radio that was purchased (earlier) through the Alberta government’s flood preparedness grant.
“The county operational services radios operate on an independent system from the current radio hub used by fire departments. Additional research will be completed on our operational services radio system but at this time there is not a recommendation to convert the county’s operational services radios to AFRRCS.”
The county has budgeted $471,984.52 for the new system, including radios, out of the total cost estimate of $877,913.60.
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