DeKalb approves $124.5K upgrades for fire department emergency alert system

DeKALB – DeKalb city leaders this week approved a plan to upgrade a 30-year-old DeKalb Fire Department alert system for $124,500, meant to bolster emergency response technology used for communications between departments.

The DeKalb City Council this week voted to buy a new station alert system from US Digital Designs. The cost the city is responsible for amounts to $124,557, according to city documents.

A station alert system is the product of police dispatches to the fire department’s internal communication system once a 9-1-1 call is received.

City Manager Bill Nicklas said the current alert system provides challenges to the city as it may be difficult to find replacement pieces for it.

“It’s a 30-year-old system,” City Manager Bill Nicklas said. “This helps not only with the alerting but it has to do with integration of the police dispatch system and the fire noticing system.”

The new station alert system, as approved, will consist of lighting alerts and tone alerts that ramp up as well as voice-over-text technology, cell phone application alerts and mapping.

Nicklas said the city has known for some time that it’s needed to take action to address the issues with its station alert system.

“I think it’s imperative that we do something,” Nicklas said. “This has been discussed for a couple years at the staff level. We now have the [Ground Emergency Medical Transport] fund to provide some funding for it.”

The city had received four bids for station alert systems, according to city documents. The lowest qualifying bid came from US Digital Designs.

In a related action, the City Council voted to authorize the installation of the station alert system for the DeKalb Fire Department for $20,180.