L.R. Kimball’s public-safety-communications unit becomes part of Federal Engineering

Federal Engineering today announced that it has bolstered its expertise—particularly in the area of 911 consulting—with the addition of L.R Kimball’s public-safety-communications practice to the firm via an agreement with CDI Infrastructure, which owned L.R. Kimball previously.

“Basically, all of that Kimball communications practice—all pieces of it—are now part of Federal Engineering, and they’re out of the [public-safety-communications] business,” Federal Engineering President and CEO Ron Bosco said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “They’ve exited the business.”

Bosco noted that CDI Infrastructure still owns the L.R. Kimball consulting business that is focused on the civil-engineering market, but Federal Engineering now controls the intellectual property, logo, employees and existing contracts associated with L.R. Kimball’s public-safety-communications unit.

“We have the right to use the Kimball brand any way we want. Effectively, it is part of Federal Engineering—we can make it gone, if we want,” he said. “But we’re not going to do that now, because it’s a good company.”

Indeed, Federal Engineering officials plan to have the L.R. Kimball unit continue its existing work with all existing employees, Bosco said. The goal is to minimize any impact on existing L.R. Kimball customers, he said.

“Hopefully, the only impact you’ll see is something better,” Bosco said. “Kimball is reaching out to all of their existing customers, letting them know what is going on, working with them to make sure that they’re comfortable, keeping the same people on the job, etc.”

Federal Engineering hopes to keep all L.R. Kimball employees, Bosco said.

“That’s the plan,” he said. “They have some really good people, so we’re looking forward to adding them to our family.”

Federal Engineering is celebrating its 33^rd year of providing consulting services for the radio side of public-safety communications, but the company began offering consulting services to 911 public-safety answering points (PSAPs) only in the last few years, Bosco said. Federal Engineering officials identified the PSAP market as a potential growth area, which spurred interest in the L.R. Kimball public-safety unit, which has provided 911 consulting for more than two decades, he said.