The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to move forward with the construction of the Joint Justice/Municipal Courts Complex near Stone and Toole avenues without the City of Tucson’s participation.

The Tucson mayor and City Council agreed in October that the city could not afford to pay its share of the construction costs that exceeded the $76 million in 2004 bonds originally allocated to the project.

The discovery of military and civilian cemeteries from the late 1800s on the site of the complex, the excavation of nearly 1,400 remains and consequential repatriations and reburials added nearly $17 million to the cost of the project.

The mayor and council voted to either move the city’s court operations, now housed in a former parking garage on Alameda Street east of Stone Avenue, to the complex without paying the city’s share of the excess construction costs or keep its court operations in the Alameda Street building.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told the Board of Supervisors that the city’s share of the excess costs, based on its anticipated occupancy of 54 percent of the complex, would be about $20 million. The continuing decline in the property tax base would prevent the County from subsidizing the city’s court operations by paying the city’s share of the costs, Huckelberry said.

Huckelberry recommended and the Board approved continuing the construction of the complex without the city’s participation and occupancy. The portions of the complex that would have been occupied by the city will not be completed. The County will explore options to fill the space with legal or court-related functions and tenants who would pay their share of the costs.

In other action, the Board voted to:

• Pay from its contingency fund $53,282 in subscription fees so that six small or volunteer fire departments could be connected to the Pima County Wireless Integrated Network of public safety radio communications.
• Adopt a policy banning smoking or use of tobacco products on County property starting on Jan. 1.
• Lease to the nonprofit Tucson Soccer Academy at no charge for 20 years the Young House at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park in exchange for more than $100,000 in improvements.

Agencies participating in Pima County’s first integrated public safety communications system are selecting the radios, dispatch consoles and other equipment their personnel will use to talk directly to each other in emergencies and other coordinated efforts.

The Pima County Wireless Integrated Network (PCWIN) will provide communications services for 29 police and fire agencies in Pima County and put 7,000 new radios into service.  It is scheduled to activate in December 2013.

Much has been done and still needs to be done to go live on that date, but PCWIN is on schedule, according to Capt. Paul Wilson of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, who is the Project Sponsor, and Motorola Solutions Inc., which is providing the equipment.

More than 200 representatives of participating public safety agencies attended a PCWIN Radio System Expo on Wednesday, Aug. 1, where they got a chance to see end user equipment demonstrated and hear an update on the status of network implementation.

Radio towers are being updated or built on more than 27 sites. The network equipment for the main facilities has passed factory tests and been shipped to Tucson.

“It’s time to actually start installing equipment,” Wilson said.

The handheld radios; mobile radios for cars, trucks and motorcycles; and dispatch consoles for the participating agencies will be ordered this fall. After that equipment arrives and is installed, Motorola will provide training.

Pima County voters approved bond funds in 2004 for PCWIN. Wilson said the bond funds will provide up to $18 million for “base level” equipment for participating agencies.  The agencies are responsible for the costs of any upgrades or accessories they choose.

The PCWIN Executive Management Committee, which includes the heads of several area public safety agencies, will consider a recommendation to transfer ownership – and responsibility for maintenance – of the agency equipment from Pima County to the agencies to control PCWIN membership costs.

The Pima Emergency Communications & Operations Center, a new 9-1-1 dispatch facility at 3434 E. 22^nd St., is under construction and expected to be occupied early in 2013, Wilson said. The County Emergency Operations Center will relocate to the new facility later this year.

The City of Tucson will be renovating its 9-1-1 dispatch facility at the Thomas O. Price Service Center at 4004 S. Park Ave. The two dispatch centers will operate as backups for each other providing a level of 9-1-1 and public safety dispatch service not currently available.

Pima County, Ariz. – In 2008, a 25-year-old man led police and sheriff’s deputies on a zig-zag car chase that began on the northwest side of Tucson and ended on Mount Lemmon, with one Tucson Police officer fatally wounded and two Pima County Sheriff’s deputies injured.

The two deputies survived. Throughout that deadly chase, police and deputies weren’t able to talk to each other on the same radio frequency.

The incident highlighted a serious flaw in emergency communications that is now being corrected.

The radio communications systems throughout much of Pima County are on different radio frequency bands and use different proprietary technologies.

They don’t provide for live, simultaneous communication among law enforcement, fire agencies and medical first responders.

The good news for county residents is that these outdated systems will be old news by late 2013, when the county’s new public safety Wireless Integrated Network, funded by bonds approved by voters in 2004, is expected to begin operation.

The new Pima County Wireless Integrated Network (PCWIN) system will enable 30 fire and law enforcement agencies from Tucson to Ajo, from Sahuarita to Mount Lemmon, and from the Rincon Valley to Avra Valley, to talk to each other by radio in real time on a single system, regardless of their jurisdiction boundaries.

Capt. Paul Wilson of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department is the wireless radio project’s administrator for Pima County. The Sheriff’s Department is a key partner in the project.

“It is imperative that first responders be able to communicate directly with one another to coordinate public safety services to minimize risk from events like the 2008 chase,” Capt. Wilson has said.

Today, most local fire and police agencies must communicate with each other during an incident by radioing their own dispatchers, who then relay the information to the other agency’s dispatchers. Those dispatchers radio their first responders. And then the first responders relay their message back the same way.  It’s a cumbersome process.

Pima County’s new, shared wireless communications system will put more than 7,000 new radios into service.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon in September 2001, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommended the use of these “shared systems” to provide what it calls an “interoperability continuum” and to prevent “single points of failure.”

The complex project under way now in Pima County requires cooperation from diverse entities, including the Tohono O’odham Nation, Arizona State Land Department, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, as well as local police and fire agencies throughout Pima County.

The new wireless radio system will incorporate a number of new communications sites now being placed throughout the county.

Several of the new radio towers are already up. The county hired contractors who specialize in communications site work so that some of the towers could go up at the same time and the county could keep to its construction schedule.

Towers are up at the Golder Ranch Fire Station #370, Rincon Valley Fire District Station #1 and at the Oro Valley Town government complex.

Also, a new tower has gone up at Child’s Mountain in Ajo and contracts for improvements at five sites owned by the city of Tucson have been awarded.

Although most of the project is funded by county bonds, $10.5 million in federal monies have been provided to pay for some of the equipment for the project.

When Pima County voters approved the Public Safety bond issue in 2004, they also approved funding for new public safety 9-1-1 dispatch facilities.

Two sites will be renovated to provide enhanced dispatch services for the City of Tucson and unincorporated Pima County.

A new county facility, the Pima Emergency Communications and Operations Center, will be built at 3434 E. 22^nd St, near Alvernon Way. A 125-foot radio tower with antennas and microwave dishes are part of this project.

The City of Tucson’s existing emergency dispatch center at the Thomas O. Price Service Center at Park Avenue and Ajo Way will be renovated and upgraded as part of the project.

Each site will act as a 9-1-1 dispatch backup facility for the other.

The communications tower to be erected at the Pima County facility in Tucson will be fitted with multiple antennas to support the emergency services communications provided by the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, in support of the Pima County Emergency Operations Center.

These volunteer radio operators provide their skills within a protocol created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission.

They’re trained to work within the guidelines of the National Incident Management System. And their skills enable local, state and federal government agencies to work together with the private sector during major incidents, such as floods. They’re also the only amateur radio operators authorized to transmit, should the President of the United States declare an emergency and invoke the War Powers Act.

The new countywide radio communications system is also requiring some construction on University of Arizona-owned land on Tumamoc Hill on the city’s west side, near St. Mary’s Road. It’s a popular hiking spot.

And although hiking access to the hill is already restricted during the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., while scientific research is under way, some people still walk the hill during those times.

Now, with the added presence of construction vehicles, access to the hill will be restricted at all times to hikers on specific weekdays while a new radio tower is erected. A sign at the base of the hill and a calendar on the PCWIN website will warn hikers when the hill will be closed to them.

Check the PCWIN web site for updates on access to the hill at www.bonds.pima.gov/wireless/index.html. Then, click on the “Project Updates” link.

Pima County, Ariz. (Oct. 13, 2011) – Pima County will hold a two-hour open house Oct. 27 to answer questions about the county’s new Wireless Integrated Network and Emergency Communications and Operations Center.

The new facility at 3434 E. 22 St. is being funded by government bonds approved by voters in 2004. It will include microwave, fiber optic and radio communications technology to the site to establish a regional public safety radio system and emergency operations center.

The new technology will allow multiple emergency agencies to communicate simultaneously.

The site will also accommodate the 911 and dispatch functions of the PIma County SSheriff’s Department. various county fire districts and backup 911 facilities for the city of Tucson.

Both the Pima County Emergency Operations Center and the offices of the Pima County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security will relocate to the newly renovated and expanded facility. They are now located downtown.

The site will have a 125-foot communications tower to support the public safety radio system and the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, a part of the emergency response system. Multiple antennas will be placed on the new tower to support emergency services communications.

The tower will not be lighted and will be placed as far as possible from homes in the area. Also, the microwave dishes installed at the site will be covered in a neutral color to reduce their visibility against the backdrop of the blue sky.

The open house will be at the Tucson Police Department’s Midtown Division operations center at 1100 S. Alvernon Way, at 22nd Street.