Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition: Blue Marsh Dispatch Services

Berks County Emergency Services will provide dispatching of police, fire, and EMS services and interagency communication for the Period of 1 January 2022 through 31 December 2022. Services shall include emergency communication for dispatching of fire, police, vehicle registrations, wanted individual and warrants, scofflaw information and dispatching of ranger patrols to reported problems at Blue Marsh Lake. The coverage is 24 hour/ 7 days a week/ 365 days a year. Berks County Department of Emergency Services is the sole radio dispatch service in Berks County for police, fire, ambulance and rescue services, therefore this void will be filled as a sole source action.

This acquisition must be awarded to Berks County due to proprietary nature of the communication systems used to dispatch emergency services. Berks County is the only entity capable of connecting the Blue Marsh Park Rangers radios into the secure county emergency dispatch system.

Berks County has purchased approximately 48 channels from the FCC giving them proprietary control over these frequencies. Blue Marsh radios are purchased through ACE-IT and then programmed for closed radio channels to sync with Berks County. This ensures ranger staff have the quickest response times and communication to external sources for emergency response. We contract Berks County Emergency Services for this communication and efficient response times from handheld, vehicular, and base radios, to ensure visitor and ranger safety.

Berks County Emergency Services is the only dispatch service of police, fire, and EMS in Berks County. Third party security companies are not capable of performing this service without increasing emergency response times and compromising visitor and ranger safety.

Authority:

FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i): The contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g. urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand name, or industrial mobiliz