Orange County Insight February 2022

Orange County Insight February 2022

VIBRANT ECONOMY l EFFECTIVE REFLECTIVE GOVERNMENT l SUSTAINABLE LAND USE

INSIGHT

Captain Maples, Tuskegee Airman Pages 3 - 4 New Radio System Launched Page 2

Michael ’ s Gift Youth Activities Scholarships Page 13

Page | February, 2022 FEBRUARY 2022

Team Orange,

As I write this month ’ s Ted Talk, it is 63 degrees and sunny... in mid - February … with a chance of snow in 48 hours on Superbowl Sunday. After January ’ s weekly snow events, I ’ m not really complaining as much as calling out the uncertainty of the time we ’ re in. I suppose this just underscores the concept that the “ new normal ” is that nothing is normal anymore. Is the coronavirus really fading away this time? Will Russia invade Ukraine? Will the Bengals really win the Superbowl? These are not questions we thought much about at the beginning of 2020! One constant is that week in and week out, Team Orange does what it takes to keep our community safe and moving forward. Despite the ups and downs, and the changes in administration and political parties at the state and federal level, we are the folks closest to the people and the ones who impact our residents most. The commitment that we share in making a difference in people ’ s lives motivates me to persevere no matter what else is going on around us. I ’ m excited to share that the Board of Supervisors and I met last weekend to discuss our next initiatives, which included significant Parks and Recreation facilities, supporting Career and Technical Education, and continuing to expand our successful broadband project. I ’ m looking forward to how these efforts will improve life in Orange County for us and future generations. It ’ s what we do.

- Ted Voorhees, Orange County Administrator

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Page | February, 2022 1 | February, 20 2

New Radio System Connects the Dots for Orange County Public Safety

By: Orange County Communications Department

The new public safety P25 land mobile radio system, sourced through L3 Harris, is already making waves throughout our public safety agencies and beyond. Far from a simple upgrade, Maj. Mike LaCasse, one of the project managers, described it as moving “ from the stone age to the computer age. ” The Orange County Board of Supervisors prioritized public safety upgrades over the last several years, paving the way for the construction of a public safety building, P25 radio system, and Computer Aided Dispatch system. The P25 radio system is state of the art and enables the County ’ s first responders to communicate in real time both internally and externally.

Prior to the new system, agencies were operating antiquated and incompatible frameworks, which made collaboration and communication cumbersome. The new P25 system created a shared communications platform for multiple community organizations including: the Orange County Sheriff ’ s Office, County of Orange Fire & EMS, Orange County Public Schools, Volunteer Fire & EMS Agencies, the Police Departments of Gordonsville and Orange, Lake of the Woods Security, and the Central Virginia Regional Jail. The system also drastically expanded available communication groups, or talkgroups. Chris Cord, Director of the Orange County Emergency Communications Center, elaborated on this capability. A “ big difference is the number of available talkgroups. We went from about 5 channels to having over 100! This improves operations as we can dedicate system talkgroups to incidents and radio traffic will not overlap or interfere. ”

Prior to the new radio system ’ s launch, only three (3) radio towers were in service and coverage in Orange County was approximately seventeen percent (17%). Now, coverage is up to ninety - six percent (96%), thanks to six (6) strategically placed towers, most of which are owned and operated by Orange County. The tower network provides for redundancy. Towers are supported by fiber connectivity, microwave connections, or both, which enables the tower communication network to maintain service if any portion should fail. Furthermore, contract guarantees with our vendors ensure that any such failure would be short - term. As a result, all agencies and organizations connected through the P25 system can count on reliable, real - time communications. Reliability is key, even for individual radios. To ensure redundancy, each is equipped with programming that allows users to transmit >Page i Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25

orangecountyva.gov

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