Essex County fixes blame for 911 outage

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October 8, 2008

By LOHR McKINSTRY The Press Republican Wed Oct 08, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT

ELIZABETHTOWN -- Essex County will pay under protest a bill for repairs to special lines connecting the County 911 center to Long Lake in Hamilton County.

Although the County Board of Supervisors agrees Wells Communications of Plattsburgh is owed the money, most supervisors said either Long Lake itself or the Verizon and Frontier telephone companies should pay the bill.

lightning storm

County Manager Daniel Palmer said it was Verizon and Frontier that told the county Wells had to fix an outage affecting both primary and backup lines between the 911 center and Long Lake.

It turned out the phone companies, not Wells, were responsible for repairing the lines.

Wells is the county's communications vendor that installed some of the equipment, and it billed the county $6,125 for work it did after the three-day outage in August.

Palmer said a lightning storm that moved through the area took out the lines. The dedicated lines are used by the 911 center in Lewis to control Long Lake's radio system and dispatch its fire and ambulance services.

WHO PAYS?

Supervisor Roby Politi (R-North Elba) said Long Lake should get the bill.

"Wasn't Long Lake the main benefactor? Why isn't Long Lake paying for this somewhat of a fiasco?"

Supervisor Ronald Jackson (R-Essex) said Wells was called in only because the companies said Wells was responsible.

"The one you should be trying to collect from is not Long Lake but the telephone companies who handed it off."

He said County Attorney Daniel Manning III should write letters to Verizon and Frontier and try to collect from them.

"They probably won't pay, but we should try."

A MESS'

Manning said one dedicated line from Lewis will be eliminated, and Long Lake has agreed to pay the cost of that line.

"This thing has been a mess from the start. Our relationship with Long Lake has not been solidified yet. We're still in the process of negotiating."

The Board of Supervisors approved the lines, but they were installed before the county had a signed contract, Manning said.

"As it stands, they have no obligation to us whatsoever. The lines were prematurely put in."

Supervisor Randy Preston (I-Wilmington), the Wilmington fire chief, said he believes the distance from Lewis to Long Lake is a reliability factor.

"Running phone lines from Lewis to Long Lake is a recipe for disaster. This is going to happen again, just because of the sheer distance."

Preston said that, under Essex County's proposed digital radio system, "we couldn't reach them anyway."

County Emergency Services officials have said Long Lake could still be dispatched with a new radio system as long as a dedicated line is in place.

Palmer said Supervisor George Canon (R-Newcomb) originally proposed the county dispatch in Long Lake "to do a favor to a neighboring town."

Palmer said two Essex County towns are dispatched by other counties at no charge: Minerva by Warren County and Chesterfield by Clinton County.

"It was one county extending a service to another county for a public-safety benefit."

Preston said it doesn't cost the other counties anything to dispatch Minerva and Chesterfield, which isn't the case for Essex County with Long Lake.

"I don't want it to seem like we're anti-Long Lake, but it looks like that, I guess," Preston said.

The Board of Supervisors voted this week unanimously to pay Wells's bill.

"If there was a problem with those lines and we didn't fix it, and there was a fatality, we'd be out more than $6,000," Palmer said.

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com