Camrose & Flagstaff Choose Glentel

Dan Heggerud is not just a man with a vision, he’s a man who can realize a vision over time. A senior corporate account manager for Glentel Inc., Heggerud has worked with public safety agencies in east-central Alberta, Canada, for 20 years. He has been instrumental in helping them establish, implement and improve their 9-1-1 communications services and systems. And he’s not done yet.

The City of Camrose It all began in 1998 when Heggerud was invited to help administrators for the City of Camrose determine the type of emergency communications equipment they should install in their new 9-1-1 dispatch center.

The city administrators wanted to be sure they could provide effective coverage for the section of Alberta that they felt was reasonable for them to support. “The City of Camrose came to me and said ‘Here’s what we want to do, and here’s how we want to do it,’” says Heggerud. “So I drew up a proposal based on a dispatching and alphanumeric paging system that would enable them to process the data for 9-1-1 calls faster out of their dispatch center. When they saw the proposal, they said, ‘Dan, we’ll go with it as long as you’ll guarantee it will work.’”

The original installation for the new 9-1-1 center was implemented in 1999 and included Zetron’s Series 4000 Communication Control System, Zetron’s 4020 Common Control Unit, two positions of Zetron’s 4118/4115B rackmount dispatch console, Zetron’s Model 640 Paging Terminal, and 20 Motorola pagers for two EMS agencies in the City of Camrose. The dispatch center was well equipped to serve as the main PSAP for the City of Camrose. Of equal importance, however, was the fact that the center was also set up to serve as the hub for a system that other public-safety agencies in the region could use. Camrose 9-1-1 would provide the dispatching services for participating communities; the communities themselves wouldpurchase the paging infrastructure necessary for them join the system. “The other agencies can choose whether to use this system,” says Heggerud. “But with each community that joins and helps expand the infrastructure, they are all able to use it more extensively.”

Expansion for Camrose and Flagstaff Counties In 2003, the County of Camrose, which surrounds the City of Camrose, decided to opt in and use the 9-1-1 and paging system for the county’s ten rural fire departments. Heggerud helped the county install the three Zetron Model 55D Digital Repeaters they would need in order to participate. Then, in 2006, the nearby County of Flagstaff followed suit. Ten additional fire departments and four EMS agencies were now being served by the system. During the 2006 installation, a 300-foot paging tower in the middle of the County of Flagstaff was also added to expand the system’s paging capabilities. “We put a Model 55 transmitter in each of the communities in Flagstaff,” says Heggerud. “Through the addressing and technology within the Model 55, we were able to support around 200 pagers.”

From old “fire phones” to new pagers Among the important benefits of the installations of 2003 and 2006 were the improvements they brought to the area’s fire dispatching and alerting capabilities. Previously, many fire departments throughout the region had relied on “fire phones” for fire alerting. “The fire phones are special phones that are placed in people’s homes,” says Heggerud. “Five to ten people in a community would have them. Each phone had a button that could be pushed to turn on the fire siren.”

With the fire phones, however, there was no way to centralize the dispatching or management of calls or record their details. “It was hard to oversee calls going to people’s private homes,” says Heggerud. “There were also liability issues. Now that the calls are going through the 9-1-1 center, they are all recorded, timestamped and carefully managed.” Instead of being alerted through a haphazard system of homebased phones, fire fighters are now alerted through pagers that they can carry with them wherever they go.

Built on trust Heggerud says that getting buy-in from all of the stakeholders in such an extensive system is sometimes a tricky business. Having their trust is key to keeping things moving along. “Public safety is built on trust,” he says. “It takes a long time to win trust and get to a place where you can actually install the equipment. I’ve made it a point to be consistent and trustworthy over the years. So when I visit the police station, for instance, they all know and accept me. These relationships really help the overall process.”

Challenges The project has posed some technical challenges, mostly because the Model 55 wasn’t originally designed to handle the number of pagers the system requires. But those who could solve this problem rose to the occasion and adapted the Model 55 so it would work for the system. “Zetron provided some special software rights that addressed our needs for the project,” says Heggerud. The problem was solved to everyone’s satisfaction.

A vision that works Deputy Chief Darrell Kambeitz of the Camrose Police Service has high praise for both the system and Heggerud’s role in designing and deploying it. “Most of our first responders reside in rural areas and have varying levels of experience with information technology,” he says. “The solution developed for us is user friendly, expandable, upgradeable, cost effective, and gives us the coverage we need in challenging areas. Dan’s service, product knowledge, and personal commitment are reassuring in an environment that demands perfection.”

Clearly, the system has been a success for Heggerud. But he’s not content to rest on his laurels; he’s already deploying another system for yet another county in Alberta.

“We started this back in 1998,” he says, “and I’m still able to deliver on it almost ten years later. That’s what I like–bringing my clients along with a vision that works.”
Article reprinted with permission from the Zetron Advantage Newsletter.