Village Technology Related News

Barrington Hills Viliage Administration works continuously on your behalf on technology related matters. This page reflects the news that may be of interest to residential users within the community.

IIT Graduate Students Mentors and Professors

Tour Barrington Hills Village Hall

On April 6, 2011, the Village of Barrington Hills hosted a technical tour and discussion with more than 25 visitors from the Illinois Institute of Technology, led by Professor Carol Davids.

Joanne Gumprecht, Barbara Kemp, Robert Kosin, Professor Carol Davids IIT

Administrator Bob Kosin, Planning and Zoning Coordinator Sarah Kenney and JoAnne Gumprecht of the Police Department facilitated the educational seminar. Features of the tour included: (a) the Barrington Hills PSAP, the Public Safety Answering Point for emergency and non emergency police calls,and the alarm monitoring and police and fire dispatch hub, (b) the Verizon LTE 4G Wireless Installation at the base of the Verizon Tower, and (c) the Block house which hosts the American Tower DAS cellular technology installation. Representatives from American Tower and Verizon were on hand to field questions.

The Village Hall is the home to many historical first deployments of cellular technology in the nation. Representatives of the Village have been invited back to IIT later this month to observe students presentations and laboratory demonstrations related to next generation 911. The IIT RTC Research lab can be seen at voip.itm.iit.edu.

NG9-1-1projects are related to leading edge NENA standards requirements for emergency services, designed to improve emergency services from anywhere anytime and any device. This means voice, text, video and telematics including emergency requests from cars, and medical devices to first responders in a more efficient and rapid fashion.

Added photos will be posted as they become available. The following photos were taken during the presentations in the Village Hall, and along the way during the 3 area tours, the American Tower DAS AT&T Wireless Installation in the Block House, the Verizon LTE Installation in the Village Hall and the Emergency Services 911 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and Dispatch Center which also handles Alarm Monitoring and non emergency response for the Village residents 24 by 7 by 365.

Cellular Technology DAS Project Completed!

Residents along many village roads who use AT&T's wireless service should find their cellular service has improved.

AT&T is the initial carrier to use the DAS equipment; the poles and fiber are available to other cellular service providers. The American Tower DAS Project went live December 2010. The project was approved by the Village in the late summer of 2009; installation started in the midst of the winter of 2009. The fiber connection was completed from the AT&T network to the Hub. in September 2010 when the DAS network was linked to the outside word. The project included the installation of a back-up generator which will host the Village's communication power requirements. The topic of cellular service and how to provide it within the village has been a hot topic for many years within the village.

Commonwealth Edison

Power Outage Information

The Village Fall 2010 Newsletter has an excellent article on how to prepare for power outages. Residents often call the village asking for advice and assistance. The Commonwealth Edison lines that traverse the Village vary in terms of importance to the utility. Some poles and lines carry electrical transport for hundreds of thousands of customers. Other poles and lines feed individual neighborhoods and they carry far fewer customer lines. Depending on where a resident lives and the lines impacted by an outage, service restoration time can vary.

Residents with special needs are encouraged to follow the personal guidelines in the Newsletter. Bob Kosin provided additional advice. Get to know your Com Ed account representative. If you or your family members have a special needs person living in the household a three (3) day outage may not be manageable no matter how well you have prepared at home. Generators run out of gas and they can get hot running for long periods of time. If there is someone in the home dependent on steady uninterrupted power there may be a need for a unique onsite solution. Utilities generally have accounts with high priority customers annotated to be restored as soon as possible no matter how many total customer lines are affected by the outage. Find out what it takes to be a high priority customer by calling Com Ed.

Do not assume during an outage that someone else has called Com Ed to advise them your line is down.

Advise the Police Department in advance if your household has high priority needs for power. Even if that was not done prior to an outage and restoration does not take place in a reasonable amount of time for your family, call the police non-emergency number (847) 551-3006 and ask for assistance. If it is an emergency call 911. Read information on the remainder of this page to evaluate if your phone service will be operational during a power outage and give yourself diverse and reliable means to reach help.

AT&T U-Verse News

The AT&T U-verse box at 3000 Spring Creek Road is operational. This was the final box of the eight (8) installed in the Village of Barrington Hills to become operational.

AT&T U-verse provides integrated Broadband Internet access, TV/Video Programming and digital Telephone services to the home, similar to services available from Comcast and various satellite service providers. The AT&T U-verse service installation utilizes the existing copper wiring to your home that carries your AT&T land-line telephone calls, thus eliminating the need to bury additional cables down the street or trench a new cable to your home. Within the home, the service can use either existing Broadband Internet cabling (Ethernet cable), or coaxial TV type cable. In addition, an installer will visit your home to set-up the service, a process that may take 4 to 8 hours.

AT&T installed eight (8) equipment boxes (VRADs) at various roadside locations within the Village. This equipment was connected to each of the several telephone Central Offices (COs) that serve our Village and provide the U-verse service to individual households. For further information on the U-verse service, or to determine if it is available at your residence, click on the link:http://uverse1.att.com/un/launchAMSS.do.

Comcast Barrington Hills Franchise Agreement

Comcast and the Village of Barrington Hills began the renewal process of the local franchise agreement for Cable TV service rights on Village roads. This agreement is limited to video service by Comcast and the other services, broadband, telephony are regulated by other government agencies. Comcast is also doing business by the name of Xfinity.

For more information on Cable TV and Telecommunications Providers, go to the Community Resident Info page.  A  brochure was mailed with the Fall Newsletter which provides reach information for the basic utility providers who have a service agreements in the Village.  The brochure is also available online and may be downloaded in a pdf format at your convenience.

Community Alert Notification System

Blackboard Connect

Blackboard Connect, previously known as  Connect-CTY, is the service utilized by the Village to deliver time-sensitive mass notifications to residents. It makes it possible for officials to reach the entire community within just a matter of minutes. The service allows you to customize how you will receive alerts based on the contact information you enter.  Choose from phone, e-mail, or text message (SMS) notification.  Past alerts have included:  serious crimes, investigative updates, road closures,  severe weather alerts.

The Police Department welcomes and encourages you to sign up for this important and valuable service so that you may stay informed, prepared, and connected. Click on the image to the right to sign up today!   If you still have questions about the Blackboard Connect service, please view the Frequently Asked Questions on the Police Website.

Verizon Cell Tower Inside

Commonwealth Edison Lines

Public Safety Considerations

In 2009, the ZBA recommended and the Board of Trustees approved the construction of a cellular tower for Verizon within the Commonwealth Edison transmission lines on the south side of Algonquin Road, State Route 62. The location is directly south of a tower for T-Mobile. From outward appearance, you can see the tower with the associated antennae and equipment shelter. As of September 1, 2010, the facility is not operational. Final pieces of the operational network build are underway.

The operation and location of antennae is a matter of interest to Public Safety.  The direction and face of the antenna affects reception for wireless 911 emergency calls. Barrington Hills receives the emergency calls at its Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) from the antennae whose faces are directed inward toward the geography of the Village. If the antennae direction points away from Barrington Hills or the vagaries of radio telemetry direct the signal to other antennae, the emergency calls can go to an adjoining jurisdiction's PSAP and have to be transferred back to Barrington Hills for assistance. This can result in potential loss of time, data and far worse communication directly with the original caller. This is one reason why as opposed to a land line call, the emergency call taker announces his or her location immediately and requests the location of the caller from a wireless device.  Bob Kosin, Village Administrator and NENA member says, "Emergency 911 calls are an important life line for public safety and the Village pursues the implementation of systems that work when it matters most."

"Emergency 911 calls are an important life line for public

safety and the Village pursues the implementation of systems

that work when it matters most." Robert Kosin.

Barrington Hills is Officially on Twitter

The Village Board of Trustees approved a Twitter site for official Village use. A brief article appeared in the Fall 2009 Newsletter. The official name: www.twitter.com/BarrHills_IL. Go online to sign up for messages that can be delivered to your computer, mobile phone or smart phone. Use this an another means to keep up with short announcements. Twitter does not replace the Village Blackboard Connect Community Alert Police notification system for emergencies and will not be duplicating Police news.

Village Website Integration Project Team

The Village continues to upgrade the websites that serve us. There are three major areas of interest for the Barrington Hills residents: Government, Community and Police. The overall group of websites may be accessed via a single Mega Portal via URL: www.barringtonhills-il.gov.

In 2008 a significant change was made in the design, format and content of the Community News and Information website. In the fall of 2009, the Community Website went through a slight facelift and the access was enhanced to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) pages, to provide residents with an easier means to view the government records mandated by 2009 Illinois State Senate Bill 189. Gradual changes have been made on the Government website. The Village migrated thousands of documents from paper and various dated media to the FOIA pages. Archived files and old media are being transitioned to the website as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Starting in mid 2010, the focus has been on Police Website content and design. Chief Murphy approves the final format which will support the additional information the department can share with residents to enhance and ease access to Public Safety. Look for the new Police Design in December 2010. This will be followed by design changes to the oldest website, the Government website managed by Administrator Bob Kosin.

Background: The Board of Trustees authorized the Website Integration Project (WIP) to commence on June 22, 2009. The Communications Committee and Website Integration Project Teams are made up of volunteer residents who work closely with the Administration and Police Department for the benefit of all residents. Look for meetings on the Village Calendar Page.

Landline Phone Requirement

Old Ordinance - Worth a Review

No matter how long we have been residents, it seems there is always something new to learn about our Village Code. There is an Ordinance that was established some time ago to enhance public safety.

" In order to provide optimal service to the public when calling 9-1-1 for emergency assistance, each household in the Village is required to maintain at a minimum one land based telephone line served by a Telecommunications Carrier who provides true land based 9-1-1 service which delivers both the call and the information regarding the callers address/location automatically to the Village Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). AT&T and Comcast, because they use AT&T's 9-1-1 service, are the land based service providers who qualify to meet the Ordinance."

If in doubt, call the Police Department at (847) 551-3006, and ask if you can set up a 9-1-1 test call from your phone(s), cellular and land based, using your own Service Provider(s).

As you may know, having a phone that works even during a power outage is also essential to your service reliability.

The Village continues to be at the forefront of technology in the 9-1-1 PSAP Center, enhancing the capabilities as Cellular and VoIP Service Providers enter the Market. As many as 60% of the calls for 9-1-1 go to the Police Dispatchers from Cellular Phones.

Reference is taken from Section 4-2-2(E) of the Barrington Hills Village Code:
 
Fire Protection Systems/Supervision (Section 1020.0).
"1020.3 Emergency Number Telephone System. Notification of the need for emergency services shall be accomplished by a caller through dialing the digits  9-1-1 on a wired line in the public switched telephone network. The telephone connection will originate from the caller's location and terminate at the Barrington Hills police safety answering point, where the telecommunicator will receive a voice connection, call back number and service address of the location of the caller.(Ord. 03-17, 8-25-2003)" 

Drive Now ….Text Later. You Can’t Do Both

January 1, 2011, marked the one-year anniversary of the state law that prohibits texting while driving. A recent online survey indicated that 40 percent of us did not know that it is illegal to text or e-mail at any time while driving on Illinois roads.

In Illinois, cell phone distractions, including texting, were the primary or secondary cause of more than 500 vehicle crashes in the first half of 2010. Nationally, nearly 5,500 people died in distracted driving-related crashes and nearly 500,000 were injured in 2009.

The Illinois Tollway, Illinois Secretary of State, Illinois State Police, Illinois Department of Transportation and AAA Chicago have come together to launch a new statewide campaign. The goal is to raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving and ultimately, reduce the number of cell phone-related accidents in Illinois. “