Agenda

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City Council Regular Meeting

Meeting Date:

08/23/2022

BACKGROUND

The Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant (DEAAG) program is an infrastructure grant program designed to assist defense communities that have been positively or negatively impacted by a change or announced change by the Department of Defense. DEAAG funding is available to local municipalities, counties, defense base development authority, junior college districts and Texas State Technical College campuses, and regional planning commissions representing these communities. DEAAG funding is available to meet matching requirements for federal funding. Grants awarded may range from $50,000 to $5 million per project. As such, the cities find it advantageous both in performance and cost to go into this grant collectively. This program is expandable to allow other cities in the region to join into as well. This opportunity was late breaking; the fire chiefs of the cities have been discussing, and the budget is still being worked out, but the deadline for submission requires this to be brought forward now.

If awarded, AACOG would administer the grant on behalf of the cities, authorizing procurement and installation of the traffic signal preemption system.

GOAL

To work through the grant process with regional stakeholders (Universal City being the lead agency) to receive a DEAAG through AACOG to join regional response/public safety organizations in a traffic preemption system for fire and EMS organizations that participates in the program. This grant would cover 50% of the program cost over the 10-year life span of the grant and will allow for better coordination of response efforts between organizations.

COMMUNITY BENEFIT

Reduce implementation cost of a life-saving technology program by 50% while promoting mutual aid strategies to significantly improve response times within the region. While these improvements in response time has a direct and significant positive impact on incident outcomes and saves lives, it will also reduce crash risk and mitigate risk for everyday drivers and first responders, improve fuel consumption, reduce vehicle wear and tear keeping maintenance and repair costs lower,

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION

In receiving DEAAG, we would join in a regional grant with JBSA, Live Oak, and Universal City to purchase the GTT Opticom system for a regional traffic preemption program that would cover 50% of the program cost for 10 years.

FISCAL IMPACT

The grant would cover 50% of the program cost for 10 years and save the city more than $200,000 to try and implement the system outside of this grant opportunity. The participation cost to the City of Schertz is still being worked with Universal City, but we recommend allocating $250,000 in the budget.

RECOMMENDATION

To approve Resolution No. 22-R-87.

Attachments
Resolution 22-R-87