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Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 15
Alderman Cookson

Are you going to have a redundant server or are you going to have a single point of failure?

Mr. Mansfield

At this particular location, it will be a single point of failure. | shouldn’t say that because of the fact that there
are different radios on the rack of the system. Each one of those radios is redundancy to the system. They
are all programmed the same and you can go to any one of those channels. If that console fails, we move
over to the rack of radios. Being on a K Core, the K Core does not offer redundancy. The cost goes up
considerably once you get into redundancy. If you went up to a L Core, now you're talking hundreds of
thousands of dollars more. If you go up to what we have today with ours, that’s even more money. It’s not a
robust system. It’s basically a car radio in a backroom that is allowing the dispatcher to talk down here to
another car radio. That’s all itis. It just has a console there that looks like what they have here.

Alderman Cookson

Can you just walk me through the system that if there is a failure with the server, what the next course of action
would be, how the communication would happen at that point?

Mr. Mansfield

Communication would happen by the operator going right directly to a radio and talking on a radio in a rack.
There’s a rack of radios.

Alderman Cookson
So this area will be manned?
Mr. Mansfield

No. Itis ina building that is manned 24/7, 365. We have access to that building, but it will not be manned.
There will be nobody in there unless we have an incident that happens or if we’re going through training.
That’s it. If there’s an operation up at the airport, such as a drill that they are doing up there, we will utilize it at
that point in time when we’re bringing the different entities who will be using it as well.

Alderman Siegel

I’m still trying to get my arms around this because it seems like this doesn’t provide us a tremendous upside.
It’s not redundant. It’s not manned.

Mr. Mansfield

It’s not redundant because of the fact you have a redundant radio system down here. This system up there is
only in case we have a major catastrophe down here. It’s only a temporary fix. It’s only to get our fire
dispatchers or police dispatchers if one of the buildings something happened to it, to get them up there to be
able to communicate to our officers out on the street. That’s the only purpose for this. It also allows us if we
have an incident with Manchester and Nashua, that could be utilized as an interoperability point of contact up
there. There’s no redundancy in the system because of the fact that that’s not what it is there for. It is
basically there for a backup to the backup of our system. It’s a third place to go. | don’t know why we would
want it manned because there’s nothing to man up there. If something happened, we would have people go
up there and it would be manned.

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 16
Alderman Siegel

Who is training people to use this?

Mr. Mansfield

It would probably be myself and the same person up in the City of Manchester. | would train our personnel,
and they would train their personnel.

Alderman Siegel

What happens if you go away?

Mr. Mansfield

Then | would hope that everybody knows how to do it. It’s not that complex of a system. It really isn’t. It’s not
like the system that we have down here which is very complex. There are radio shops around that could
provide the service of showing people how to utilize it. These are being utilized throughout the state right now,
the K-Cores.

Alderman O’Brien

| think Mr. Mansfield will agree, and to help my colleague wrap my arms around it, if we look at the current fire
alarm situation, it’s in an old fire station. It’s an old building, is sprinkled and everything, but what’s
immediately behind it is a wooden structure. Up the street, we had a five-alarm fire a couple of years ago. It’s
in a congested neighborhood. What would happen if we lost something as vital as that, radio communication
because the house next door caught on fire and did damage to our current structure, making our fire alarm
communications center inhabitable? We have a failsafe with this plan, it sounds like. Besides of the good
works it would do in case of terrorists or anything else that may go on with the greater regional airport, it has a
lot of plus to me that | can see.

Alderman Cookson

You called it a backup to a backup.

Mr. Mansfield

Correct.

Alderman Cookson

Alright. So the current backup as it currently exists, how many times has it failed in the past year?

Mr. Mansfield

It hasn't.

Alderman Cookson

It hasn’t. How many times has it failed in the last five years?

Mr. Mansfield

That the backup to the backup has failed?

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 17
Alderman Cookson

No, not this idea but the original backup that you have in place.

Mr. Mansfield

We haven't had a major catastrophe that that has happened.

Alderman Cookson

Alright. So this is a further fail safe.

Mr. Mansfield

Correct.

Alderman Cookson

Because your backup hasn't failed. You are estimating that you are going to spend another $600,000 for a
backup for something that hasn’t failed.

Mr. Mansfield

Something that | anticipate as a possibility. The possibility is there for it to fail.

Alderman Cookson

Why would it fail?

Mr. Mansfield

Just as Alderman O’Brien said, a catastrophe happens where that building was shut down on Lake Street. If
something happened at the police department and that building was shut down. That’s what we are talking

Alderman Cookson

Do you have switch overs between the fire alarm station and the police communications? If fire went down,
would you still be able to communicate with the stations through another means?

Mr. Mansfield

If the fire communications went down, we have a spare console at the police department that we could have
one person go into and dispatch their firefighters.

Alderman Cookson
That would be considered the backup?
Mr. Mansfield

Correct.

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 18
Alderman Cookson

| would assume the same thing is true for the police. If the police have a catastrophe, they would be able to
also communicate and dispatch or provide services as well. Is that correct?

Mr. Mansfield

At fire, yes.

Alderman Cookson

At fire.

Mr. Mansfield

Correct.

Alderman Cookson

Alright. So, we only get to a point of complete failure if there are catastrophes at both places. Is that correct?
Mr. Mansfield

No, not necessary.

Alderman Cookson

Why not?

Mr. Mansfield

It depends on what the catastrophe is. If we lose a connection between fire and police or if we lose a
connection, | shouldn’t say “a” connection, multiple connections between those two buildings, you could be out
of service. We have enough redundancy we believe in there that is going to prevent that from happening, but
you don’t know.

Alderman Cookson

You have the connections coming in from multiple directions?

Mr. Mansfield

Yes.

Alderman Cookson

Okay, so you’re not on the same fiber line. You have a fiber line coming in from two different places.

Mr. Mansfield

Correct. We have redundancy within the system now where we are connected to all the towers through
microwave. That is the primary. The fibers are secondary.

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 19
Alderman Cookson

Thank you.

Alderman O’Brien

Mr. Mansfield, let’s walk down memory lane a little bit. | seem to remember one day when | was working we
were hit, as we often are, with a rash of thunder storms in the area and it knocked out the communication at
fire alarm. Being the deputy chief on duty that day, | took my portable. All fire dispatchers are issued portables
as well, too. We were able with three portables to maintain radio communication between all apparatus and
the medical. It did occur. Now, fortunately, we have some pretty brilliant people that work for us in the radio
division, and the situation was promptly fixed. | think it was the batteries that blew up. There was a smell of
smoke in the building. | did have a dispatcher who could smell smoke. | said that we’re the fire department:
we don’t worry about that. We smell like that all the time. The thing is we were able to keep the system going.
| can see what Mr. Mansfield is saying. We've got to prepare for something that is more catastrophic. This
was a natural event of lightning. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking and the professional training that exists in
Nashua Fire Rescue, it could have had a worse outcome. We were able to adapt and cope because of the
training.

Alderman Cookson

Through you to Alderman O’Brien?

Mayor Donchess

Yes, of course.
Alderman Cookson

| appreciate that insight that you are able to share with us. It is very important because | don’t think many of us
have that same experience, so thank you for sharing that. Help me, again, help me understand how this
solution, a backup to a backup, would benefit you as a former deputy fire chief in the exact same situation that
you just referenced as a need for it? My understanding is communications go down. I’m assuming in this
situation, maybe your portables didn’t work so you didn’t have that backup to the main line of communication.
But you now have this available to you. Does this mean that somebody from Nashua has to go up to
Manchester, to the airport, in order to communicate or dispatch? Is that what this backup does?

Alderman O’Brien

In the situation that occurred that | described, we were able to correct it with portable radios and yelling out to
my car down below dispatching as well. To answer your question directly, we had the temporary fix, and we
were able to adapt and overcome in that particular situation. | think what Mr. Mansfield is talking about is
something a little bit more catastrophic that may be, like if that lightning struck did cause a building fire or
something like that and totally wiped out a lot of valuable equipment. We’re talking the long term of this.

Alderman Cookson

Okay.

Alderman O’Brien

| think we can adapt in the short term, but it’s not the best solution. We put a band aid and we made it work
because of our professionalism. | think what Mr. Mansfield is trying to explain to us is this will give us the

opportunity if we lost a building or lost something so we can continue on and not have a break in service
because of its redundancy. To me, it makes sense. | can understand your questions because we do have a

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 20

lot of redundancy in different things because if one thing fails, we need another thing to come in and replace it.
This is how the emergency services really work, to come in like that and cover all gaps in different situations.

Alderman Cookson
Does Mr. Mansfield have anything to add to Alderman O’Brien’s commentary?
Mr. Mansfield

Just to reaffirm what he said. We’re looking at the major catastrophe. The incident that he is talking about that
did happen was a short-term incident. It was not a long-term incident. Even if that building was destroyed,
another temporary fix, again a temporary fix, would be to go to the police department. But again, that is going
to get chaotic really quick because of the amount of phone calls that are going to be going in there. We don’t
have two fire dispatch consoles in there. We only have one. They utilize two all the time. They are operating
on 14 different channels on their radios and they are trying to disseminate the EMS calls and this call and that
call and then to have the police department’s calls right there at the same time. This is a solution, a longer
term solution, where they can go up there for days at a time. They have bathroom facilities. They have
telephones up there. They have plenty of space in there. They havfe four consoles that will be available up
there to Manchester or Nashua, whoever is having the issue, where they would be able to communicate back
here and still know what’s going on. The only thing they are going to lose from that location up there is the fire
alarm circuits. That’s the only thing they are going to lose. Everything else is going to be filtered through
telephone lines up there.

Alderman Cookson

But again, you don’t anticipate this to be used very much at all.

Mr. Mansfield

| don't.

Alderman Wilshire

| just wanted to weigh in. | like this. | think it is a regional approach to something much bigger than a thunder
storm. It could be not even a natural catastrophe. It could be a man-made catastrophe. | think I’d feel safe
knowing that Manchester could cover us, that we could cover them. | think it’s a good regional approach to
something that could be much bigger than what we can handle. Thank you.

Alderman Cookson

Do we have mutual aid with other fire departments, to anybody who may be able to respond to that question?
Mayor Donchess

| think the answer is yes.

Alderman O’Brien

Yes, Alderman Cookson, we have mutual aid. | am proud to say that in my career, | have fought fires with the
Manchester Fire Department. When | was Captain and Lieutenant and Firefighter, we went up there and they
came here. The whole situation exists with mutual aid, and thank God that it does. It’s beneficial to the
taxpayers because you don’t have an overabundance of stations. You have the right amount to cover your
immediate needs. When you get into a catastrophic type of situation, a large fire or multiple calls, then you

need the redundancy and the backup. It’s a mutual aid. The firemen from Manchester or even Tyngsboro will
come into the City of Nashua and provide quality service and give the same quality of service that the Nashua

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 21

Fire Department would give. | mean that, not to be melodramatic but they are prepared to do all to save lives.
That’s the motto of the fire department and mutual aid fits right into that.

Alderman Cookson

| appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Mayor Donchess

We do have mutual aid with Hudson, Amherst and Merrimack, the adjoining towns, correct?
Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That is correct. Each geographic location, you notice the fire box goes by a coded
number. They do have a card, maybe not a card now, a computer. Basically it lists up to seven alarms on that
particular location. All the fire alarm dispatcher has to read that particular computer screen and they know up
to seven alarms who is coming in. The mutual aid is clearly spelled out on the card. If that community is
having an issue at the time, and let’s say a blizzard, thunder storm activity, brush fires, other things that are
going on, it also gives options that they can call in somebody else. One thing when | was the Deputy Chief, |
used to get an odd call in the middle of the night saying somebody somewhere was requesting assistance. |
say, give it to them. That’s what Nashua does. That’s what the fire service does, helps each other out. That
was with the dive team or other different things as well as maybe an engine company to their particular fire.

Alderman Cookson

| appreciate that. | Knew we had mutual aid. My follow up question is going to be: How do you communicate
with those departments that are providing mutual aid?

Alderman O’Brien

We would discuss with Mr. Mansfield and follow back with Mr. Mansfield the patching in capabilities with
mutual aid companies that come in.

Mr. Mansfield

Right now, the City of Nashua, all police and fire apparatus have our 800 MHz radios. They also have a VHF
radio in them. All the surrounding communities around us are VHF. If we have to respond for mutual aid, we
can speak with any community, any community, not just surrounding us, any community in the state. Our
radios are programmed for that. All the police radios are programmed for every police department in the state.
All the fire radios are programmed for every fire department in the state. There is one bank in every one of
those radios. When | say bank, it’s a zone in the radio. It’s called H Bank. H Bank is supposed to be, and it is
in the City of Nashua, in every VHF radio in the state. The H bank has what they call V fire, V law, V EMS
because it’s VHF. Then have they V tax. So there’s 16 channels that every radio in the state has that we can
use for interoperability. We also have, as Alderman O’Brien was stating, the capability of patching when
somebody comes to us if they are operating on a VHF radio. Usually it happens more with a fire department.
On the VHF side, they would come into the city. They would know to go to the Nashua channel because we
have VHF frequencies as well. The fire dispatcher would connect the two together by clicks on the computer
and patch those radios together. The same capability happens on the police side as well.

Alderman Cookson

Is that yet another backup to the situation that we’re trying to address with this Memorandum of
Understanding?

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 22
Mr. Mansfield

No.

Alderman Cookson

Why not?

Mr. Mansfield

You are talking about mutual aid and you're talking about a catastrophe happening at a dispatch center. They
are not the same.

Alderman Cookson
I’m talking about that we are able to communicate with multiple agencies.
Mr. Mansfield

Not if you lose your dispatch center. If you lose your dispatch center, you will not be communicating with any
agencies. You're not even communicating with yourself. That's the purpose of this.

Alderman Cookson

So we have backup within the city between fire and police and vice versus. And, we have portables that act as
a short term solution that allow us to communicate with one another and continue to provide the services that
need to be provided.

Mr. Mansfield

If | may, you’re losing services. When you’re communicating on portables, they are communicating back and
forth with the engine companies. I’m not even sure if the phones are up or down, but if the phones are up
that’s one thing. If the phones are down, that’s another issue. Now we need a place to get calls. That’s why |
am saying that’s what this building is going to provide us with. It’s going to provide us with that communication

capability that we don’t have today if something catastrophic happens. |’m just trying to look to the future. I’m
not saying | want that to happen.

Alderman Cookson

| appreciate that, and | appreciate you taking the time to help me understand. | apologize if you went over any
of this content prior to my arrival this evening. | appreciate you reinforcing and communicating to me the
responses to my questions. The last question, would this structure, this communication building, is it on the
Regional Airport’s property?

Mr. Mansfield

Correct.

Alderman Cookson

Is it a new Structure or is it an existing structure?

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 23
Mr. Mansfield

It is an existing structure that is on the opposite side of where the terminals are, again for hopefully the thought
of if something happened there.

Alderman Siegel

Is there any way to have this structure in place closer to Nashua?
Mr. Mansfield

For the cost, probably no. That’s the reason why we went down this path, because of the cost. We don’t want
to rent property and we don’t want to rent facilities. We don’t want to have to maintain a building. We had
thought about different things.

Alderman Clemons
It takes 15 minutes to get to the airport. If you have sirens it is going to be even quicker.
Alderman Caron

As | am reading this, it is $300,000 from Nashua and Manchester, but this is a grant. What set you on this path
along with the Manchester communications person to apply for this grant, the Homeland Security
Communication Disaster? | understand the inner-communications, but | think what this is about is a major
disaster happening within either city between fire and police and that’s what we are looking at. Doing grants is
very complicated and time consuming, so I’d like to Know why you would pursue this if it’s maybe not worth the
time and effort.

Mr. Mansfield

As | stated early on, we were looking at ways to provide redundancy to our police, fire, dispatch system in
Manchester and Nashua. This was the most cost effective way to do this. It also provides us with not only
redundancy in both our dispatch centers, it also provides us with interoperability capabilities as well. Especially
if we have a joint operation going on, this facility could be utilized for that joint operation as well where you
have Manchester and Nashua city dispatchers sitting next to each other. The room is big enough. You could
also have command staff in there to be directing on what’s happening. And the benefit for us going to the
airport is again, as | said, cost. It is more of a central location. It would be more central if it was in Merrimack.

| Know that; I’m aware of that, but again, it’s not that far from the City of Nashua. We can hit our towers from
the location that we’re at. It’s not that big of a deal.

When we looked at the redundancy, we are in communication with Manchester because everything that we
were going to do with this redundancy had to involve both of us together. We sat down coming up with ideas
of if we can’t do what we want to do because it’s not cost effective, especially for Manchester, and they
wouldn't be able to get the funding to do what they need to do, what’s the next solution? Again, it’s still going
to provide us with redundancy in our dispatch center, but also provide us with the capability of more
interoperable and working close togheter in major incidents and disasters. That's how this whole thing came
about.

MOTION CARRIED

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — None

Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 24

NEW BUSINESS - RESOLUTIONS

Mayor Donchess

We have one resolution, but I’m going to ask that you table it for the following reason. It’s a lease agreement
for the transmission station that’s in the Nimco building for WSMN. It proposes that there be a lease payment
of $250 a month. The ownership of the station has just changed over. The new owner has contacted me to
say that $250 is a hardship for them. Legal is mostly concerned about getting a lease so they agree that they
are insured. I’d like the intervening two weeks to come back to you with a proposed written amendment to
basically leave all the provisions in place. $250 a month really doesn’t make much difference. We just want
the insurance. In any event, if you were to table it, | could come back to you with a written proposal and deal
with it next time.

R-17-139
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF NASHUA TO ENTER INTO A LEASE AGREEMENT WITH ABSOLUTE
BROADCASTING, LLC FOR A PORTION OF 1 PINE STREET EXTENSION

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO TABLE R-17-139
MOTION CARRIED

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES - None

RECORD OF EXPENDITURES

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL THAT THE FINANCE COMMITTEE HAS COMPLIED WITH THE CITY
CHARTER AND ORDINANCES PERTAINING TO THE RECORD OF EXPENDITURES FOR THE PERIOD
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 TO OCTOBER 12, 2017

MOTION CARRIED

PUBLIC COMMENT

REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN

POSSIBLE NON-PUBLIC SESSION

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO ADJOURN
MOTION CARRIED

The Finance Committee meeting was adjourned at 8:27 p.m.

Alderman Ken Siegel
Committee Clerk