NORWICH – Chenango County’s 911 communications system was scheduled to go live this month, but with installation adjustments – and a final cash call – officials don’t expect to see the light at the end of the tunnel (or in this case, tower) until fall.
The project has been underway for more than a decade. It replaces a system of three towers constructed in the 1970s: one in Otselic, one in Coventry and one on Barnes Hill in Norwich. The three gave coverage to only about 25 percent of the county. Replacement parts simply didn’t exist for the antiquated microwave system, and the towers themselves weren’t tall enough to support newer, more technologically advanced antennas.
“I don’t know how many times I was told if it went down, we would be done,” said longtime Chenango County Board of Supervisors Chairman and former police officer Richard B. Decker, R-North Norwich.
When the county’s now nine-tower system goes live in September or October, 98 percent of the county will be covered at a 95 percent rate. A state-of-the art 911 communications system is something that Chenango County has never had before and can now be proud of, Decker said during a recent interview.
“With public safety as a cornerstone in the county, this is what we were after. We can communicate easily. It’s important to put safety first,” he said.
The county board’s decision in February to make a final cash infusion of $200,000 to the project’s consulting engineers wasn’t without question, however. Supervisor Jerry Kreiner, R-Plymouth, said he was frustrated that the engineering consultants weren’t “looking down the road for us” to avoid more costs. Supervisor James B. Bays, D-Smyrna, concurred, saying, “They had their responsibilities, now we are paying additional money for it.”
A handful of supervisors have repeatedly questioned multiple aspects of the new 108,000 square foot Public Safety Facility on Upper Ravine Road in the Town of Norwich as well as the 911 tower project – especially because a 1 percent sales tax was imposed county-wide to afford them. But it has been Supervisor Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, who most often raised questions through the years about the funding details.
A tally of expenses and revenues obtained from the county treasurer’s office shows the cost of the Public Safety Facility capital building project to be $25.2 million and the Public Safety Communications capital building project to be $5.8 million. When combined, the total $31 million amount is a far cry from what Flanagan said was an approved budget of $26 million for both phases of an overall Public Safety Facility project. (See sidebar.)
When the new Sheriff’s Office and Jail on Upper Ravine Road in Norwich opened in 2007, former Sheriff Thomas J. Loughren and Chairman Decker publicly announced that it was built for about $1 million under the $26 million originally budgeted. Flanagan said he took particular exception to those claims, further pointing to the treasurer’s office data that doesn’t entirely account for “about $3 million” that, as he recalled it, was set aside for “communications.”
A large portion of the $5 million overage can be chalked up to the fact that the three towers originally targeted ballooned into a total of nine, including the main tower at the site. But, indeed, when the communications capital building project was approved in 2007, Chairman Richard B. Decker often referred to it as “Phase II.”
“It’s not the right way to put it (that the entire project was over budget),” Decker said in a recent interview in response to Flanagan’s assertions. “Perhaps that was my fault for calling it that (Phase II). They were two separate projects from the beginning.”
Flanagan said the original planning document for the overall project included an estimate of $3 million for emergency management communications. When the Chenango County Board of Supervisors finally stamped their approval of it, the amount had been slashed to $2.58 million. Much later, as the building was nearing completion, it was announced that about $760,000 was leftover to attend to the towers.
Flanagan’s claim would therefore be more like $2.24 million that went into other aspects of the project rather than the 911 tower project.
Upon learning that the budget for communications had been cut, members of the Chenango County Fire Advisory Board and Emergency Management Services Board protested at the time. However, when contacted for this article, neither Robert Handy, retired county fire coordinator, nor the current Advisory Board Chairman Mike Cobb could remember just exactly what the original planning documents has included for emergency management communications.
“The numbers were so difficult to follow that I finally stopped asking questions,” said Handy, who was fire coordinator for 23 years before stepping down in 2005.
Chairman Decker and Chenango County Emergency Management Services Director Matt Beckwith recently explained that the communications portion budgeted within the $26 million was earmarked only for telephones, computers, the 911 dispatch consoles, and to construct, but not equip, the main tower. It was not intended for improving the three existing towers, nor adding on any more, Decker said.
Despite efforts, The Evening Sun was unable to obtain the original planning documents that budgeted an amount for communications within the original $26 million. But taking the approved amount of $2.58, and after a lengthy investigation of the costs as per conversations with Decker, Beckwith, Young, Treasurer William E. Evans, and Clerk of the Board RC Woodford, it appears that $1.82 million was spent to construct one tower and install telephones and computers within the facility.
The figure appears out of proportion when compared to the $5.8 million spent to construct eight towers and equip all nine. Despite several calls to his office over the course of this investigation, Beckwith could not be reached to confirm the price for equipping a tower. Decker said the price for constructing one tower was normally between $800,000 and $1 million.
To complicate things further, Sheriff Loughren often referred to state grants that were awarded for the dispatch center. The exact amounts weren’t easily identified on the treasurer’s office statements, and Chenango County Deputy Treasurer Ardean Young said he wasn’t familiar with any state grants.
“If they did receive them, they were set up to go directly through DASNY (the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, the project’s primary consultants),” said Young, deferring the question to Beckwith.
Beckwith confirmed that the sheriff’s office dispatch center was built with “about $1 million in grants.”
Two other costs that don’t appear on the statements are for change orders put through by DASNY for both projects and something the Chenango County Public Works Committee has always kept track of: About $300,000 that was spent in house by the county’s public works department in order to clear the Upper Ravine Road site.
Decker said that while the Public Safety Facility was being constructed, emergency management officials planned to improve the three existing towers and equip the main tower. With the left over funds from the close out of Phase I, it was determined to create a second capital project account for $2.77 million. The plan was to later equip one tower per year and spread out what would be an additional cost, Decker said.
Responding to complaints about blackout areas along Rt. 8 in New Berlin and Columbus, officials later went onto survey the county and identify more tower sites that would ensure coverage countywide.
“We made sure we had the coverage we would want. We didn’t leave a stone unturned. We looked at state, county and private land to determine where the correct location for towers should be and what frequencies we should use. We did that during 2005, all year long,” said Decker.
Beckwith said the bid that was submitted to DASNY for the three sites included an additional alternative “add on” for six (including outfitting the main tower). When the contractors said “the efficiencies of scale,” as Decker explained, would provide for constructing and outfitting all nine towers at just under $6 million, Decker said he was surprised.
“We were going to do it in stages, but DASNY said doing all nine sites would be more efficient and economical,” said Beckwith.
“If we look at $1 million a tower for three and we’ve constructed and built out nine for a little less than $6 million, we couldn’t say no,” Decker said.

The Tower System
Towers are located at the Public Safety Facility and Barnes Hill in Norwich; Cook Park in Greene, Millbrook in New Berlin, and one each in Sherburne, Otselic, Pharsalia, Coventry, and Sidney. The radios and microwave receivers on them have a one year warranty and are serviceable for up to seven years after the technology becomes obsolete.  Prospective cell phone companies and fire departments from the surrounding counties have asked about attaching equipment for their use. The former would be provide a new revenue stream for the county, as well as better telecommunications coverage.
A little more than half of the towns’ fire departments will have their new radios by the fall. Those that aren’t converting over to the new band width will be able run on the old system until all fire departments switch over.
The backbone of the new system is a 6’ Alcatel-Lucent microwave dish that is mounted on the side of each tower and connects to radio transmitters that are also mounted. To eliminate potential obstructions to a direct path, several studies were conducted to determine the appropriate heights for the dishes. Some towers will have two dishes on them as a result; one to receive the signal and the other dish to transmit the signal to another tower.
The second component is the Motorola radio system that people hear on scanners alerting fire and ambulance units, county highway and law enforcement. With consideration of the number of frequencies, agencies and users on the system, there are many base radios at each site. These are rack mounted radios that connect to antennas on the towers which actually transmit the radio signals. The Motorola equipment will use the microwave as the path to each tower. So, as the dispatcher pushes the transmit button at the console in the 911 center, the signal will travel through the microwave, to the base radio. The base radio will then key up and transmit the message out of the antenna to the pager, portable and mobile radio of the responder.

Public Safety Facility Funding
A dedicated 1 percent sale tax was imposed in 2001 to help fund, build, staff and now operate the new sheriff’s office and 129-bed jail. The move was mandated by New York State Department of Corrections, due to the size and age of the former facility.
Applying the 1 percent collections to the purchase of additional towers wasn’t originally the plan supervisors had in mind. It took a legal decision made by County Attorney Richard Breslin to later do so.
Today, the dedicated tax is being used in part to offset the jail’s annual spending plan. It cost $5.6 million to operate the jail last year. Back in 2006, the jail’s operations’ costs were projected to be between $600,000 and $1 million a year.
When asked about the possibility of revoking the special 1 percent sales tax anytime in the future, Chairman of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors Richard B. Decker replied, “The way things are, what do you think? We thought when we went into this that it would be a great gesture, but with reality setting in, I don’t know. It’ll be a couple of years before we can answer that question.”
The spending plan is offset by 1 percent sales tax collections ($4.56 million in 2009 and projected to be $4.35 this year) plus property taxes and revenue from boarding in out-of-county prisoners.
The latter revenue stream was a far cry last year from the $1 million earned in 2008. Sheriff Earnest Cutting told members of the Safety and Rules Committee in March that the corrections department brought in only $70,000 of the $450,000 budgeted for 2009. Boarding in revenues are considerably down for this year, too.
The three-year-old Chenango County Public Safety Facility can house a total of 133 prisoners, but it has averaged only 75 for the first few months of this year. The jail previously averaged 90 prisoners a day.
To cut some operations costs, some cell pods have been closed off. Staff levels remain the same, however, as mandated by the New York State Office of Corrections. There are more than 60 corrections officers and sergeants on staff. The Sheriff said overtime and extra hire expenses were being scrutinized “to make some of it (the revenue losses) up.”
The last bond for the project is expected to be paid off next year.