058-04
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
RESOLUTION
PHASE ill NORTHERN SHENANDOAH VALLEY
INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION PROJECT
WHEREAS, the County of Frederick was a Charter member of the Northern
Shenandoah Valley Intelligent Transportation System project; and
WHEREAS, the project's original intent was to determine how to best deal with the
widening of Interstate 81 and effectively address public safety issues during the project; and
WHEREAS, the project has created regional partnerships between the jurisdictions of
Clarke, Frederick, Warren, Shenandoah Counties, and the City of Winchester; and
WHEREAS, the regional endeavor has expanded to incorporate private sector partners,
such as Valley Health Systems, ComCare Alliance, Shentel, and various other private sector
firms locally and nationally; and
WHEREAS, the initial stages of technology have been deployed within each of the
jurisdictions enabling a transfer of information through a national message broker; and
WHEREAS, the public safety services within the County of Frederick and the region are
on the verge of implementing cutting edge technology; and
WHEREAS, Phase I and Phase II of the project have been completed with great success
and are the focal point of national attention through the implementation of technology into the
public sector arena; and
WHEREAS, a continuation of the project has the potential for enhancing the delivery of
public safety services within the County of Frederick and region; and
WHEREAS, support for public safety continues to be a goal of the County of Frederick;
and
WHEREAS, the ability to address interoperability within the region is a priority to
establish and retain continuity of service within the region;
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors of the County
of Frederick endorses the continuation of Phase III ofthe project within the framework of the
established partnership; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Board of Supervisors encourages and
supports regional cooperation through projects of this nature to enhance the public safety
emergency preparedness mission of the County of Frederick and the neighboring jurisdictions.
Adopted this 14th day of April 2004 by the following recorded vote:
Richard C. Shickle ~ Gina A. Forrester Aye
Barbara E. Van Osten Aye W. Harrington Smith, Jf. Aye
Gary W. Dove Aye Lynda 1. Tyler Aye
Bill MEwing ~
Resolution No. 058-04
Northern Shenandoah Valley
E-Safety Network Initiative
Grant Proposal
February 27, 2004
The Counties of Frederick, Warren, Shenandoah, Clarke, and the City of Winchester are pleased to
provide our response to solicitation number_, entitled, Request for Information, _ Program,
Technologies and Processes Enabling Public Safety Interoperability. We hereby submit our proposal to
deploy and demonstrate a multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency interoperable public safety communications
system.
The "Northern Shenandoah Valley E-Safety Network Initiative" will demonstrate interoperability by
deploying for daily use an open standards-based, scalable multi-vendor communications system,
comprised of a suite of applications and services which use it. The network to be deployed has already
been developed and trialed over the last two years in an intensive public/private effort funded by a grant
from the Virginia Department of Transportation. This involved the full range of emergency response
agencies in this region. These technologies are currently in demonstration use in the NSV. The proposed
demonstration will take this to the next level, allowing local, state and national officials to evaluate the
effectiveness, costs and capabilities of the E-Safety Networkl in real world use through integration with
legacy communication systems. It will also provide a platform for the demonstration of selected
additional, interoperable services and applications, yet to be determined, by E-Safety Network
participants, and it will integrate with other state emergency systems and programs.
The Northern Shenandoah Valley E-Safety Network Initiative is unique in the country in the breadth of
agency, and public/private cooperation, and among the very few which have developed and already
proved in concept this kind of open, interoperable infrastructure. The E-Safety Network offers a
relatively lower-cost approach to interoperable communications that is easily scalable.
Also unique in its positioning as a regional-wide effort with multiple agency types, the Initiative
represents an innovative and cooperative approach to emergency communications in rural America. As a
joint initiative of five independent, neighboring local jurisdictions it presents an effort to address
interoperable communications, mutual aid, and emergency management beyond the limits of traditional
single jurisdiction and individual agency based communication systems.
I. Background
Best practices in information and network technology enable emergency response agencies to integrate
and accelerate emergency communications in ways never before possible. Taking advantage of these new
I The E-Safety Network is a unified emergency information architecture developed by the ComCARE Alliance. This
architecture ties together the various data systems used by law enforcement, fire, emergency medical, public health,
transportation and emergency rnanagernent/homeland security agencies. A wide variety of data sources can feed into the E-
Safety Network. One common denominator is the use of standard XML data representations for events such as bio-terrorism
and other health alerts, hazardous material incidents, vehicular emergency events, general responder notifications and public
alerts, among others.
1
technologies, the Northern Shenandoah Valley E-Safety Network Initiative will demonstrate and deploy
an interoperable communications system for voice and data in emergency response, emergency
management, and homeland security.
The E-Safety Network architecture is an approach to secure collection and selective publication of
incident and emergency response information. It is not a specific company, system, or product, but rather
a design pattern and set of operational and business rules through which a consortium of unrelated
information and technology providers can cooperate to create vital, interoperable functionality fOF public
safety and emergency response, at reasonable cost and in little time.
The Virginia E-Safety Network Initiative is led by the emergency response leaders of the Northern
Shenandoah Valley (NSV) ITS-Public Safety Initiative. Additionally, numerous private sector partners
have been, and will be, invited to demonstrate their technologies as part of the Initiative. This system and
architecture have been developed and tested in the five counties of the Northern Shenandoah Valley ITS-
Public Safety Initiative for the last two years. In the last year they were used successfully to support a
number of drills, including a state pneumonic plague exercise, a twenty-two county regional smallpox
drill, and several multi-hazard drills in the NSV.
We propose that the E-Safety Network be deployed in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia2,
available to all emergency agencies within the region, for a trial period of one year. During this one-year
trial period, the E-Safety Network will be used as a communications platform to support a wide variety of
emergency response exercises and to test additional technology applications which may serve the specific
interests of one or more emergency professions, or be applicable generally to all such agencies.
The E-Safety Network is based on open, non-proprietary technical standards that ensure technical
interoperability between systems and agencies, and encourage the development of new applications,
competing for a national market. The use of standards in an open-architecture system allows for a
relatively simple "plug and play" environment where numerous applications and services can publish and
subscribe to data from the core infrastructure with minimal customization. In this way, the E-Safety
Network provides reliability, efficiency and continuing innovation through open market competition
among solution providers.
The E-Safety Network is very similar to the _ requirement. It allows incident information to be
securely communicated to and throughout the Shenandoah region; responders can share information and
enhance coordination. This comprehensive end-to-end system is designed to link the mobile public to
emergency agencies, and the agencies to each other.
II. Prior Uses of the E-Safety Network
2001 - 2002 -
Funded by a grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation, emergency
leaders in the Northern Shenandoah Valley Region, supported by the ComCARE
Alliance3, assembled a team of emergency response leaders and innovative
2 For purposes of this document, the Northern Shenandoah Valley Region of Virginia refers to the following jurisdictions:
Frederick County, Warren County, Shenandoah County, Clarke County, and the City of Winchester.
3 The ComCARE Alliance is a broad-based non-profit national coalition of more than 90 organizations that includes nurses,
physicians, emergency medical technicians, 9-1-1 directors, emergency managers, transportation officials, wireless, technology
2
companies to define and deploy a new kind of emergency information architecture,
and to demonstrate how diverse commercial technologies and products could be
integrated into an E-Safety Network without the expense of an overall systems
integrator.
The consortium developed and demonstrated an open, standards-based network that
provided responders with immediate life-saving information on hazardous
materials incidents, medical and mass-casualty events, car crashes, and other
situations involving emergency data-sharing, alerting and notification.
January 16,2003 - The E-Safety Network was used as part of full-field terrorism and hazardous
materials exercise in and around Winchester, Virginia.
March 6, 2003 - The E-Safety Network was used to facilitate multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional
communications and response to a smallpox bio-terrorism drill in a twenty-two
county region in Northwestern Virginia funded with a federal grant from HRSA.
August 24, 2003 - The E-Safety Network was used as the centerpiece for communications in an all-
hazards, multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional exercise between each of the
participating agencies in the Initiative in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of
Virginia.
October 21,2003 - The E-Safety Network was used to facilitate multi-hospital, multi-jurisdictional
communications in a statewide bio-terrorism drill sponsored by the Virginia
Department of Health.
December 18, 2003 - The E-Safety Network was featured in a live drill and demonstration to the public
in Winchester, Virginia, highlighting the developments over the period of the
Initiative.
III. Requirements
A. Permanent Deployment of Core Infrastructure
I. General Vendor Requirements
a. Provide interoperable data and related services as described below to fifty health
care delivery, public safety, public health, transportation, local government, and
related agencies in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia;
b. Utilize broadband Internet connections and customer premises electronic devices
obtained by the participating agencies;
c. Utilize a secure, open standards-based, Web Services data architecture, creating
vendor independence and system interoperability;
and transportation companies, public safety and health officials, law enforcement, and automobile companies working together
to encourage the deployment of live saving communications and information technologies.
3
d. Provide documented non-proprietary interface and messaging specifications for the
E-Safety Network components so that interfacing existing computer systems and
additional innovative technologies can interface with all network-based functions;
e. Provide user education and support for all products and services;
f. Provide system integration services for the E-Safety Network, coordinating the
activities of all participating vendors.
2. Core Infrastructure
a. A geographic information systems ("GIS") enabled alerting and notification
application consisting of a map-based tool for creating and targeting alerts and
messages;
b. A Web Services capability for providing information and enhancing it, including a
message routing facility;
c. A computer-based tool for receiving and displaying emergency messages;
d. A real-time Internet-based incident Web site map of current notification messages
and other data sources;
e. A flexible, Internet-based emergency operations center toolset which provides a
portal to many of these other network services, along with incident management
messaging tools;
f. The EP AD4 registry of participating agencies, their contact information and the
types of emergency information they wish to receive, and the area for which they
wish to receive it;
g. Standardized XML data feeds of transportation incident reports, public alerting
messages, and similar external emergency alerts;
h. A system for providing one way data notices to up to 250 individual staff members
of participating agencies of received E-Safety Network alerts and agency-generated
alerts using various personal wireless devices; and
1. Integration with emergency information systems installed in PSAPS and
emergency departments, including computer aided dispatch (CAD) and hospital
diversion and bed availability systems.
4 The Emergency Provider Access Directory (HEP AD") is a GIS-based electronic directory which will include over 80,000
federal, state, and local emergency response agencies. EPAD is being developed by the ComCARE Alliance through a grant
funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. A prototype of the EP AD directory has been
successfully used in prior drills and demonstrations of the E-Safety Network in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
4
B. Legacy System Connections
1. Participating response agencies will formally request that their legacy computer aided
dispatch (CAD) vendors create interfaces to the standardized XML data communications
of the Network, and join (or cooperate with) the Technical Committee.
2. Project engineering staff will work with the information technology staff of a selected
group of participating PSAPs, hospitals and other agencies to demonstrate interconnection
with the portions of their legacy IT systems which they agree would materially benefit
from receiving such system data, and providing data to it (e.g. an incoming hazmat
incident alert, an out-going bed status report, status of emergency response apparatus).
These participants shall be volunteers for this purpose, and provide the programming staff
for work on their agency's side of the interface. Working with them, we will develop a
migration plan and budget to extend this to other agencies
3. Explore with state officials more complete integration with state and regional emergency
networks, including facilities for data feeds to and from such systems. Create a plan and
budget for accomplishing requested integration.
4. The core infrastructure vendors agree to cooperate with these efforts, and will immediately
allow HTML links (and interoperability if the other agencies will undertake their side of it)
with state and regional emergency agencies (e.g. VDH, VDOT, VHHA, VDEM) and pre-
existing single-agency emergency communications networks.
C. Equipment and Services Fund
The plan is to acquire equipment and services to help manage the information in-house (e.g. terminals,
redundant Internet connections, etc.), and extend the benefits of the Network into the field (i.e. wireless
data services and mobile data equipment and software).
D. Extension and Strengthening of Communications Infrastructure
An interoperable emergency communications system should address the issues of mobility and
redundancy. Emergency responders should be able to access the E-Safety Network while in both the
office and in the field. This will require the deployment of mobile devices, subscription to wireless
services, and extending wireless coverage to fill the many of the wireless coverage gaps in the region.
This will also require redundant connections for key nodes on the E-Safety Network. This will consist of
the following elements:
1. The exploration and deployment of the best combination of public and commercial voice
and data wireless systems to create an effective and integrated, shared emergency wireless
communications system for the region;
2. The exploration and deployment of redundant connections from key emergency agencies
to network access points to ensure that failure of primary voice or data trunks does not
disable the system.
5
3. A system for transmitting emergency incident data to and from ambulances and other
emergency vehicles;
4. Ruggedized mobile data terminals for use in emergency vehicles.
E. Training of Staff
Effective use of the E-Safety Network will require the training of the hundreds of professional and
volunteer responders in the region, so that these individuals are both engaged in the project and are
proficient in the use of the tools of the E-Safety Network.
1. Refine the Users Manual being finalized in Phase IT of the Northern Shenandoah Valley
ITS Public Safety Initiative, specifically to include new practices derived from legacy
system integration.
2. Meet with leaders from each county to develop an effective training program. Consider
online practice tools.
3. Run educational workshops on the E-Safety Network in the region and each county, and
support one or two trainers in each county on an on-going basis.
4. Run a series of county and regional drills, alone and in conjunction with state drills.
F. Oversight and Organizational Requirements
1. An organizational structure to oversee the project will include an Executive Committee
with representation of an elected official and a business leader from each jurisdiction. This
will supervise the current broadly representative Steering Committee, and its supporting
Operations and Technical Committees.
2. The jurisdictions have agreed to hire a single system manager for the NSV E-Safety
Network.
3. Agency leaders will develop short-term and long-term plans for installation and payment
of costs.
4. One of the deliverables from this project will be a report on the issues and efficiencies of
cooperative regional emergency communications systems.
5. We will explore rules and procedures for the use and distribution of these new information
sources. This will include exploring policies and technologies which provide system and
data security, and which allow the owners of data to determine which organizations receive
it or have access to it.
6. Our Operations and Technical Committees will develop and use tools to measure system
effectiveness.
6
7 . We will explore trial deployments of other applications of interest to agency participants.
This shall include applications which provide data security, and allow the owners of data to
determine which organizations receive it.
IV. Budget
Core infrastructure payments to vendors
$150,000
Legacy system connections and field deployment pilot
$150,000
Administration, training and staffmg
$175,000
Total:
$475,000
V. Parameters
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7
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1 ApPLICATIONS OF PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY TO PuBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS
Appendix A of this proposal presents a high level vision of how the E-Safety Network is actually used in
a public safety communications setting. Since it is based on an open architecture, data standards and
commercial data transport protocols (i.e. Web Services), the proposed system makes use of available
communications and information management technology and networks. Authorized emergency officials
can access and use the system with their current equipment (if it is IP based).
2 TIMELINE TO DEVELOP
The proposed solution has already been developed, and integration between all companies involved has
occurred. The solution must be integrated with legacy systems for actual daily use and evaluation of
effectiveness. An example timeline for the deployment in the Shenandoah Valley is provided in the table
below.
8
For more information contact:
Dr. Jack Potter, Interim Chair, NSV E-Safety Initiative
Director of Emergency Medicine
Valley Health System
Post Office Box 3340
Winchester, Virginia 22601
540-536-8708
jpotter@valleyhealthlinkcom
Chief Lynn Miller
City of Winchester Fire and Rescue
231 East Piccadilly Street, Suite 330
Winchester, Virginia 22601
540-662-2298
wfrdchieflam@ci.winchester.va.us
Gary DuBrueler
Director of Fire and Rescue
Frederick County
107 North Kent Street
Winchester, Virginia 22601
540-665-5618
gdubruel@co.frederick.va.us
Pamela Hess
Director ofE-911 Communications
Clarke County
100 North Church Street
Berryville, Virginia 22611
540-955-5106
phess@co.cJarke.va.us
Gary Yew
Fire and Rescue Coordinator
Shenandoah County
600 North Main Street, Suite 109
Woodstock, Virginia 22664
540-459-6167
firecoor@co.shenandoah.va.us
Chief Richard Mabie
Warren County Fire and Rescue
220 North Commerce Avenue, Suite 300
Front Royal, Virginia 22630
540-636-3830
rmabie@warrencountyva.net
9
THE COMMON COUNCIL
V.fb "..' \~
~'GIN
I, Sandra D. Hughes, Clerk of the Common Council, hereby certify on this uP day of February, 2004, that the
following Resolution is a true and exoct copy of one and the same adopted by the Common Council of the City of
Winchester, assembled in regular session on the lrl' day of February, 2004.
RESOLUTION - PHASE III NORTHERN SHENANDOAH VALLEY
INTELLEGENT TRANSPORTATION PROJECT
WHEREAS, the City of Winchester was a Charter member of the Northern Shenandoah
Valley, Intelligent Transportation System project; and
WHEREAS, the project's original intent was to determine how to best deal with the
widening of Interstate 81 and effectively address public safety issues during the project; and
WHEREAS, the project has created regional partnerships between the jurisdictions of
Clarke, Frederick, Warren, Shenandoah, and the City of Winchester; and
WHEREAS, the regional endeavor has expanded to incorporate private sector partners,
such as Valley Health Systems, ComCare Alliance, Shentel, and various other private sector
firms locally and nationally; and
WHEREAS, the initial stages of technology have been deployed within each of the
jurisdictions enabling a transfer of information through a national message broker; and
WHEREAS, the public safety services within the City and region are on the verge of
implementing cutting edge technology; and
WHEREAS, Phase I and IT of the project have been completed with great success and
are the focal point of national attention through the implementation of technology into the
public sector arena; and
WHEREAS, a continuation of the project has the potential of enhancing the delivery of
public safety services within the City and region; and
WHEREAS, support for public safety continues to be a goal of the City; and
WHEREAS, the ability to address interoperability within the region is a priority to
establish and retain continuity of service within the region;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council of the City of
'Vinchester endorses the continuation of Phase lIT of the project within the framework of the
established partnership; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Common Council encourages and supports
regional cooperation through projects of this nature to enhance the public safety emergency
preparedness mission of the City and the neighboring jurisdictions.
Resolution No. 2004-09.
ADOPTED by the Common Council of the City of Winchester on the 10th day of
February, 2004.
Witness my hand and the seal of the City of Winchester, Vuginia.
(U~UUL- ;V, Wuolie0
"--Sandra D. Hughes, cf:fc -
Clerk of the Common Council