HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 83
(By Delegate Stemple, Amores, Angotti, Ashley, Beane, Boggs,
Butcher, Cann, Caputo, Coleman, Dalton, Davis, Douglas, Evans,
Facemyer, Flanigan, Frederick, Harrison, Houston, Hunt, Jenkins,
Kominar, Kuhn, Laird, Leggett, Louisos, Mahan, Manchin, Manuel,
Martin, Mattaliano, Mezzatesta, Modesitt, Perdue, Pethtel, Prunty,
Romine, Rowe, Shelton, J. Smith, Spencer, Stalnaker, Thompson,
Trump, Tucker, Varner, Warner, C. White, H. White, Williams,
Willison and Yeager)
Requesting the Joint Committee on Government and Finance to make
a study of the effectiveness of statewide emergency
communications.
Whereas, Six State agencies own and operate 218 tower sites for
the operation of radio signals and service, namely the Division of
Natural Resources, the State Police, the Division of Highways,
Emergency Medical Services, West Virginia Educational Broadcasting
and the Division of Forestry, none of which provide any statewide
fire or emergency medical service frequency; and
Whereas, Nine State agencies are operating radio systems,
purchasing equipment, paying technicians and utilizing many
different vendors, suppliers and other such services, all of which involves obvious duplication of efforts and services; and
Whereas, The State must find a way to integrate fiber optic
cables being installed on the interstate highways into our
communications system which will save money that would have been
spent on towers; consolidation of the towers and coordination of
radio systems with one lead State agency could save the taxpayers
millions of dollars annually, as has been demonstrated in the state
of Virginia; and our ultimate goal should be improving the
effectiveness of emergency communications statewide, while reducing
overall cost to the taxpayers; and
Whereas, There exists no official supervision or coordination
of the various radio systems used by the State agencies referred to
in this resolution by which the communication needs of those
agencies could be assessed for the purpose of standardization and
modernization; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Joint Committee on Government and Finance is hereby
requested to review, examine and study the effectiveness of
emergency communications statewide and the radio tower systems now
in use by the various State agencies which own the 218 tower sites
with the ultimate goal of reducing overall cost to our taxpayers
while making the emergency communications in this State more
efficient and make recommendations regarding a comprehensive
program of standardization and modernization of emergency communications statewide; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Government and
Finance report to the regular session of the Legislature, 2001, on
its findings, conclusions and recommendations, together with drafts
of any legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations;
and, be it
Further Resolved, That the expenses necessary to conduct this
study, to prepare a report and to draft necessary legislation be
paid from legislative appropriations to the Joint Committee on
Government and Finance.