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Hurst council authorizes purchase of Burkes fire station alerting system; budgeted $280,000
Summary
Council authorized the city manager to purchase the Burkes Fire Station Alerting System to integrate with CAD and dispatch. Chief Brent Craft said the project was budgeted at $280,000, with an expected annual maintenance cost of about $9,000.
The Hurst City Council authorized the city manager to purchase a Burkes Fire Station Alerting System, a digitally enhanced alerting system that integrates with the city’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and radio systems.
Fire Chief Brent Craft told the council the system will allow 911 call takers to maintain unbroken communication with callers while dispatch data is converted into text-to-voice alerts sent to stations. Features described by the chief include color-coded station lighting (for example, blue for EMS and red for fire), “station boards” (display screens in common areas that show unit locations and calls), automated tones, and timers to track turnout times. Chief Craft said the city budgeted $280,000 for the project but expects to spend less; he said the system will require an annual maintenance fee of roughly $9,000 that covers firmware and system upgrades.
Chief Craft said the chosen system is less proprietary than some vendors’ products and can integrate with a range of displays and equipment; he also said the city is joining a regional enterprise CAD (referred to in the meeting as NEFTA), which could enable CAD-to-CAD feeds to share unit placement across agencies, although exact mutual-aid visibility and feed options remain to be configured. A council motion to authorize the purchase carried on a voice vote.
