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Council approves Purvis alerting, AES replacement and a demonstration ambulance amid rising call volume
Summary
The council approved the purchase of a Purvis station alerting system and a replacement digitized AES alarm monitor for dispatch, and authorized buying a demonstration Ford F‑550 ambulance to shore up the rescue-wagon fleet as call volume rises and reserve vehicles are unavailable.
Councilors approved a package of public-safety technology and fleet upgrades intended to shorten dispatch times and improve responder readiness. The council awarded a Purvis station alerting system (local vendor) to automate the push of CAD information into station alerts, a replacement digitized AES radio‑alarm monitoring system (RB Allen) for business alarm monitoring, and a demonstration Ford F‑550 Type I ambulance from New England Fire Equipment to provide an immediately available, warrantied reserve vehicle while two new rescues are on order.
"So that's gonna save us about 2 minutes of, time of call to time of dispatch," said Fire Chief Keith McCall of the Purvis station alerting system, explaining that when a 911 call is triaged and enters the CAD it will push an automated alert into the town’s CAD and station alerting system to reduce manual transfer time. Chief McCall and other staff said the upgrades — combined with mobile data terminals and improved monitoring — will decrease response times, improve in‑station notification accuracy and reduce long-term health impacts on firefighters from repeated loud, full-station alerts.
On fleet needs, staff described escalating EMS call volume and an out‑of‑service rescue with recurring electrical problems. Council approved acquiring a demonstration ambulance that can enter service quickly, noting vendor warranties and low mileage; two new rescues are expected in February and will become the primary vehicles while the existing fleet will be rebalanced via refurbishment or remounting to produce two primary and two reliable secondary vehicles. Funding for the ambulance and dispatch upgrades will come from restricted public safety revenue streams and CIP allocations as specified in the docket.
