Wireless Update for City Hall Complex Planned

The wireless network at Stow City Hall is about to get a major upgrade that will include mobile improvements for the city's police and firefighters.

Stow City Council voted Thursday to update the wireless network at the city hall campus, which includes three buildings: the main city hall building; the safety center where the police and fire departments are located; and the service building.

Dale Germano, Stow's manager of information systems, told council this week that the wireless network would be a significant update to the cumbersome hardwired system in place in city hall.

Germano said that the update will work on multiple layers.

"There will be public access in all three buildings very similar to what's in (council chambers) right now," Germano said.

That layer will allow the public access to the Internet via laptops and mobile devices. The second layer will be a password-protected network that will allow city employees access to the existing computer systems.

The third layer will be restricted to police and fire staff. That layer also will allow police to update dash-cam video and other data from their cruisers (current dash-cam videos require direct download from a disc to the city's serviers) and firefighters to download data from laptops in their emergency vehicles from the station's bays — rather than having to remove the laptop from the fire truck.

Council voted to spend $25,000 on the wireless upgrade. Cleveland-based MCPc, in partnership with NEOnet, will install the network.

"When the project is complete, all three buildings will be completely covered in a
wireless network," Germano said.