The V.I. Public Finance Authority’s Board of Directors approved funding to complete a territory-wide public safety communications network and to start studying the possibility of founding a medical school at the University of the Virgin Islands, during its monthly meeting Thursday.
“We know we have deficits in the communications system police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians rely on. Today, the PFA made possible correcting these deficits and implementing a first-responder system Virgin Islanders deserve," Gov. John deJongh Jr. who chairs the PFA, said in a statement about the meeting. "We also voted to advance work on what could be a game changing development – establishment of the first medical school in the territory’s history,” deJongh said.
Reuben Molloy of the Bureau of Information Technology sent a letter to deJongh saying the territory-wide public safety communications network begun in 2009 needed to be completed and certified.
“The completion of the network will improve response time, keep our communities safe, and save lives,” Molloy wrote.
Molloy requested $400,000 in PFA funding for professional project management services he said are vital for the completion, installation, implementation and certification of the network. BIT has selected Heath Consulting to provide those services because of the company’s expertise in the field, and its knowledge of the existing communications system, according to Government House.
Heath will assist development and execution of the overall tower implementation plan, which has a projected total cost from $1.6 to $2 million. The project is expected to be completed during spring of 2014, according to Government House.
In 2009, an alternative tower plan with limited tower sites allowed the territory’s 9-1-1 Call Centers to go live.
“Although the centers function extremely well, we have received complaints from emergency responders regarding insufficient channels for all the agencies that use the network as well as frequent dead spots as a result of the alternate tower plan,” Molloy said. “By implementing the original tower site design—a total of 14 tower sites, with six on St. Croix, five on St. Thomas and three on St. John — we will correct these deficiencies and provide a comprehensive public safety network that will reach all emergency responders in the most remote locations on all four islands.”
UVI President David Hall requested funding of the feasibility study, the first major hurdle to establishing a medical school. That study, to be performed in conjunction with Schneider Hospital, Gov. Juan Luis Hospital and Boston University Medical School, should cost some $250,000.
The first stage will be implemented this January, when Boston University medical students begin taking clinical courses under the supervision of physicians at Schneider Hospital, Hall told the PFA. Those visiting students will live in university housing and will counsel UVI’s pre-med students.
