The Stratford Fire Department is looking to replace what it calls its “aging” recording system.
In a management report to be discussed at the Finance and Labour Relations Sub-committee meeting Tuesday afternoon, the department says it wants to get council’s approval to make an unbudgeted capital expenditure to replace the system which is no longer supported.
They say their dispatch center handles 3 thousand emergency calls per year on behalf of the 21 fire departments within Perth and Huron Counties and part of the process is the mandatory recording of those calls.
The fire department says the current recording system was purchased and installed in 2002 but they add that the original company that they purchased it from is no longer in business which leaves the system unsupported.
City staff have looked for cost estimates for replacing the system, with prices ranging from $30 thousand to $100 thousand, and a policy that requires all purchases above $250 thousand to go through an RFP process.
The fire department says its capital reserve fund has a current balance of over $584 thousand.
