Elko County Awards Federal Engineering Contract for Public Safety Radio System Consulting

Upon the recommendation of the E911 Advisory Board, Elko County, Nevada has selected Federal Engineering, Inc. (FE) to provide consulting services to assess its public safety radio system.

Situated in the Northeastern corner of Nevada and having a diverse topography, Elko County covers over 17,000 square miles and is ranked as the 6th largest county in the United States with an estimated population of 53,000. This area consists of a combination of 4 incorporated cities and multiple towns with the majority of the region being rural.

Mr. Lee Cabaniss, Chair of the Enhanced 911 Board, explained:

The main issue that we face today is that there are currently a variety of radio systems used by public safety in Elko County. Compounding the issue is that each agency has its own set of channels to operate on. There are no common operations channels. The variety of radio systems causes problems integrating communications between agencies during large or complex incidents or even during simple incidents that require collaboration. Agencies also often find coverage gaps in current radio systems while in the rural areas of Elko County and some of these gaps are covered by other radio systems, causing the responder to utilize multiple radio systems when responding outside of a typical coverage area.

Mr. Rajit Jhaver, Associate Vice President of the LMR/Wireless practice for Federal Engineering provided more details:

Because FE has been serving clients in Nevada for nearly 10 years, we know the distinctive conditions impacting the public safety radio systems within the State. We will be analyzing and suggesting a procurement process to the County in order to implement a new system. Throughout the project, FE will work closely with the Elko County E911 Advisory Board as we have found that early involvement by representatives from all stakeholder departments encourages a broader understanding with the assurance that their issues are being addressed and incorporated into the overall design.

Federal Engineering’s primary objectives are:

• Conduct on-site project kickoff meeting with Elko County stakeholders to confirm goals and requirements.
• Perform an analysis of Elko County’s existing systems to include age, lifecycle, reliability, ownership, operating condition, access, and capacity.
• Make recommendations based on findings and professional experience to provide a detailed comparison of building a new system or improving a County owned radio system for all users in Elko County.