The Fire, Police, and IT/Finance Departments presented their capital requests for Fiscal Year 2021 during the October 2 Capital Expenditure Committee meeting.
Fire Department
Bedford Fire Department Chief David Grunes addressed the committee over his proposed expenditures and a timeline for future projects in upcoming years. The Department is requesting $17,561 to replace their Automatic Chest Compression Machine; and $8,210 to replace the Fire Hose Tester, which is used to test all fire hoses on an annual basis. The Department has used the current device for 13 years old, three years longer than the originally proposed ten years.
Proposed Fire Station
The Committee briefly discussed the future of the Bedford Fire Station. Town Manager Sarah Stanton urged the committee to consider the importance of the station.
“We desperately need it,” Stanton said. The proposed station would encompass a 20,000 square foot building on a 60,000 square foot lot. This improvement would benefit the Fire Department as the current station is roughly 13,000 square feet.
Fire, Police, Dispatch and Emergency Medical Services
Information System Manager Sherwood Ives presented the need for new Public Safety Software (PSS). The software includes four main components: Fire, Police, Dispatch, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The project is proposed to cost $ 810,000.
The need for this software is becoming increasingly urgent as the current software, FireRMS, is not guaranteed to be supported after July 1, 2020. The new software would allow the four departments to work together more effectively.
IT/Finance
Information System Manager Sherwood Ives presented the need to replace aging computer equipment and software.
The proposed cost for the replacement is $103,240. Of that total, $30,000 is dedicated to upgrading the Springs Brook Park software to work compatibly with the cloud. To help maximize the utility of the Town “virtualized” computing environment, $17,343 is proposed for improvements to the VMWare vSphere software.
September 25 Meeting Minutes and Date of Next Meeting
Minutes of the September 25 Capital Expenditure Committee were approved unanimously.
The next meeting for the Capital Expenditure Committee is planned for October 16.
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