Gates Public Safety Building

Client Overview
The client required a sophisticated fire alarm, access control and paging system for their new police and ambulance facility, located in Rochester New York. The building will be staffed 24/7. Some areas will be used solely by the Gates Police Department and some will be used only by the Gates Volunteer Ambulance Service. The paging system required that "the unit will remain in place without separation of any parts from the device when subjected to seismic forces specified and the unit will be fully operational after the seismic event." The preference was to purchase all systems from one supplier.

Analysis
For any new construction project Life Safety realizes the contractor needs low prices yet strict adherences to the specifications especially for this project with its security issues. Although the specifications did not address the fact that the town already had access control in some of its existing buildings, it was apparent that the same personnel would be also accessing the new building. We decided to match that equipment to eliminate the need for two sets of programs and cards.

Solution
As a cost savings measure for the fire alarm system we used the Mircom brand although not named in the specification. Even doing this Life Safety was able to meet every specification requirement. To meet the service and performance needs of the paging system we supplied a combination of TOA and Lowell equipment. To match the town’s existing access control system we provided PCSC system equipment. Through special programming the required separation in certain areas was met.

Result
All systems were installed and found to be 100% operational on time and ready for the grand opening of the facility despite numerous change orders required to enhance the system per the owner’s requests.

Client Testimonial

"When you design for a police department, there are a lot of security issues –"

- Supervisor Ralph Esposito

"It is designed so it’s staffed 24/7 although it may not be on day one. It’s going to be very functional. It was designed with users in mind. I think it’s something the town can be proud of –"

- Project Manager Russell Hurlburt