Public Safety Upgrades May Exceed $1 Million Next Fiscal Year

By John Voket

If recommendations that were previewed this week for the Board of Finance move successfully through the upcoming budget process, taxpayer investment in upgrades and equipment for Newtown’s public safety agencies could top out at about $1 million in the next fiscal year.

In making their case for the proposed expenditures, representatives from local fire companies, the emergency communications, and police departments stressed that the expenditures should be committed sooner versus later.

An argument to bond two pumper trucks for the Sandy Hook and Dodgingtown volunteer fire companies before 2010 was clear: nationally mandated emissions upgrades to apparatus that will be rolled out that year could add as much as $30,000 in extra cost to new fire trucks.

In addition, trucks purchased in 2010 and beyond will face much more costly maintenance for their newly designed emissions systems.

Additionally, Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue Chief William Halstead said fire engine manufacturers will only be able to purchase apparatus engines from one single manufacturer, because two additional companies that currently supply the vehicle power plants will cease building those engines concurrent with new emissions requirements going into effect in 2010.

In the case of Dodgingtown, Chief Halstead said the new apparatus would replace a 1988 Maxim, which is the station’s first responding pumper covering that residential section of town.

The second truck would replace Sandy Hook’s second responding pumper, which was purchased new in 1982 and refurbished in 1995 at a substantial savings to taxpayers at the time. The chief said that particular unit responds to more than half of the station’s calls.

In 2007, Sandy Hook’s crews responded to 542 calls and is on track to exceed 500 in 2008.

Chief Halstead said although cost savings would be realized on emissions hardware, the new engines would be subject to new safety standards designed to maximize protection for volunteers en route and on scene. He detailed seatbelt verification systems, enhanced reflective safety striping and the addition of a black box that would monitor all operational systems when the trucks are in use.

Sandy Hook’s equipment committee is far along in the design process for its new truck, Chief Halstead added, and if the funds are approved, the unit would be ready to go to bid as early as July.

Police Going Digital

Police Chief Michael Kehoe’s proposal for his department’s comprehensive analog to digital upgrade is estimated to cost $490,000.

Chief Kehoe told the finance board that technical consultants who began exploring the conversion in 2002 actually recommended the town hold off on investing taxpayer dollars in an upgrade “until the technology caught up to our particular needs.”

Simply put, when digital technology became available for the applications required for Newtown’s Police services in 2002, the range and coverage for field equipment was inadequate, Chief Kehoe said. But now, upgrades to control stations at communication towers around town would be required regardless of whether or not the town invests in the digital upgrade.

At about $200,000, the quote for significantly better radio and communications hardware actually costs less today than it was in 2002 when his department began considering what would have been a inferior conversion.

“We have to start looking at climate-controlled field cabinetry, because temperature extremes are taking a toll on our existing equipment, and impacting the useful life of those systems,” he said. “And the current proposal would provide equipment where we would experience [virtually] no drop-off in communications ability.”

Expanding Dispatch Capabilities

Maureen Will, Newtown’s director of emergency communications, was on hand to explain the logic behind adding another $280,000 to the CIP to complete emergency system upgrades that would not only enhance police department systems, but ambulance and fire communications as well.

And while the digital conversion would not be eligible for any type of public funding, Ms Will expects the channel bank upgrade to qualify for about $80,000 in grant underwriting.

Ms Will told The Bee following the meeting that the communications center wanted to move forward concurrently with police in implementing the planned replacement of technical components for the townwide radio system.

“Some of the units currently in operation are no longer supported, such as components that provide simulcast transmissions which allows multi users/agencies to talk and listen at the same time,” she said. “A system enhancement [provides] channel banks which will allow the use of T-1 lines instead of analog lines at our receiver sites — thus allowing for better system clarity.”

Ms Will said the T-1 lines are more reliable than analog and allow her dispatchers to monitor alarms from remote locations, benefiting all end users of the townwide system.