NORWICH – Tempers flared Monday when members the Chenango County Board of Supervisors learned that a long-awaited E-911 radio transmission system would be yet another three months late.
The system was scheduled to go live this fall, but with antenna and radio installations remaining at four tower sites and final radio frequency testing expected to carry on through early December, officials are indicating it could be toward the end of the year now.
The $6 million project, in concept, has been underway for more than a decade. Tower installations began with the completion of the county’s new Public Safety Facility in 2007.
The updated emergency communications system replaces three towers constructed in the 1970s that served only 25 percent of the county with nine towers and 98 percent coverage. Frequencies went from four channels to 16. Eventually, all 21 fire departments will be required to purchase new UHF radios in order to be compatible. Thirteen of them have already.
“We’re making every effort we can to improve on this schedule,” said Chenango County Emergency Management Director and Fire Coordinator Matt Beckwith, who presented a project update at this month’s meeting of the county board.
Beckwith pointed to the end of December for a full sign off. “We’re very optimistic that we’ll meet the deadline,” he said.
Supervisors from the towns of Smyrna and Otselic expressed their frustration with a lack of emergency radio coverage as well as the county’s inability to contract with a cellular telephone carrier for the towers.
James B. Bays, D-Smyrna, said his highway and fire responders have been toned out ever since the tower project began, resulting in decreased coverage. Beckwith said he was aware of that situation in Smyrna, saying it was also the situation in Otselic and Sherburne. County EMS officials have resorted to text messaging in order to alert security departments about emergencies in those regions, he said.
David J. Messineo, D-Otselic, said his constituents have been waiting three years for cellular phone coverage. He said he recently learned that the county’s attorney received a draft contract from an AT&T installer back in May of 2009.
“How’s the lease to AT&T coming along?” he asked. “I heard it’s not going so well. I’ve been listening to this (tower project presentations) for three years now. Cell companies co-locate all of the time on towers. You see them working on these towers all over the place. Don’t say we can’t fill in the gaps. The people of Otselic Valley are being held up, not by AT&T, but by our people not being able to complete a contract. You’ve had it since May of 2009. Now this week ... just send it out!”
Bays offered, “I hate to see potentially lost revenues for us. That’s a little troubling to me that we’ve been working for months and months on a lease? Seems like a long time.”
According to a time-line provided by Messineo, Pyramid Network Services LLC, a contractor for AT&T, had several communications with Chenango County Attorney Richard W. Breslin between May 2009 and Sept. 7, and had since given up on co-locating antenna equipment on the county’s E-911 tower on Flannigan Road in Otselic. Messineo received a letter stating that the company is actively investigating alternative locations on which to site their tower.
Beckwith and County Board Chairman Richard B. Decker said AT&T, specifically, had been “pushing” the county for some time to get on the new towers. They took turns explaining that cellular companies were invited to come on board two years ago, but were told they’d have to wait until the towers were complete before installing their equipment.
“We’ve been working with Rich on the lease agreement,” said Beckwith, referring to the county’s attorney. “Motorola (the radio supplier) said if there were going to be any frequency problems with other vendors, then it would be our problem, not theirs.”
“We made a very conscious decision to protect the integrity of our system first. I realize that it’s not as fast as a lot of organizations think we should go,” said Decker.
Supervisor Bays took exception to Decker’s explanation: “But you haven’t protected the system. That’s not true. We, in Smyrna at least, have lost system integrity during the interim. Our service had not been protected.”
“I really question the capability of the people who are working on this if they can’t even come up with a contract,” said Messineo.
“Nobody’s going to get on that thing until we can get it tested,” said Decker, referring to the towers.
A consultant for Chenango County’s E-911 tower project told lawmakers that before it was decided to build the new system, the county asked cellular telephone companies that were contemplating erecting towers in the area whether the county’s radios and antennas could piggy back on their infrastructure.
“They said, instead, that they’d wait for us to build them,” said Ron Gecsedi, assistant director of project management for the New York State Dormitory Authority.