Midwest Alarm Services 2015 Q2 Newsletter

Midwest Alarm Services has recently been part of two award-winning Commercial Design projects featured in the April 2015 edition of In Business Magazine.  749 University Row at University Crossing won the Project of the Year & Best Green-build Project and Mead & Hunt Offices won the Best New Office Development & Best Medium Project awards.

We were proud to be part of the design-build teams on both of these projects and look forward to working with you on next year's winners!

Effective in 2015, both the City of Ankeny and the City of Waukee have implemented a new system to track fire alarm system inspections. All completed inspection reports for facilities in these areas must now be submitted electronically to an online portal called The Compliance Engine (www.thecomplianceengine.com), where they will be viewed by the local Fire Marshal.  Other cities in Iowa currently using this service are Clinton, Indianola, North Liberty, and Waterloo.  There is a small fee the compliance engine charges for this service that is being passed on to our customers.

This is a question many building managers and accounts payable people have been asking more and more frequently. As many of you are aware, your fire alarm panel needs the old analog or POTS (plain old telephone service) to communicate a fire alarm to emergency services.  NFPA 72 2013 (the code that governs fire alarm) has allowed for alternative forms of communications.  Midwest Alarm Services can provide solutions that can include Cellular dialers, IP dialers, and our proprietary AES network.  A Midwest Alarm Services employee can determine which one of these technologies is available in your area and which solution would work best for you facility. Please contact your local branch or check us out on the web at midwestalarmservices.com

Midwest Alarm Services is pleased to introduce Larry Loffredo to our ever-growing sales team.  Larry will serve as a Building Systems Sales representative in our Des Moines office.  Larry comes to us with an extensive and impressive background in the Fire Alarm System industry. 

In his spare time, Larry enjoys golf, music and playing the guitar, and is an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

Please give Larry a big welcome to our team.  

Good planning is essential to construction site security to prevent the theft of valuable materials and tools. General contractors and subcontractors can benefit from the following tips to improve site security:

• Create a job site security plan before the project begins.
• Encourage security awareness among all workers.
• Contact the local police and fire departments before starting a job to establish cooperative efforts.
• Inventory and track assets regularly.
• Secure the site perimeter with proper fencing as the first line of defense.
• Control site access by establishing – and monitoring – only one access point.
• Light up the job site to effectively deter theft and vandalism.
• Consider using security guards and have them patrol the site. Provide them with a means of communication.
• Consider installing a video monitoring system to capture vehicle traffic entering and exiting the site.
• Consider using a security company that offers instant, portable, wireless monitoring for theft, fire, flood, motion, temperature extremes and more.

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