First $1 million allocated for Essex County radio project

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January 28, 2012

— Essex County Board of Supervisors unanimously approves equipment funds

LOHR McKINSTRY Press-Republican The Press Republican Sat Jan 28, 2012, 02:28 AM EST

ELIZABETHTOWN — The Essex County radio project got its first big infusion of cash this week.

The project's $10 million bond issue was tapped for $1.07 million to buy microwave equipment for the new county-communications network's radio towers.

The County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Thursday to allocate the funds.

The county is also buying $24,800 in VHF low-band radios to be used for emergency paging for the project.

Purchases of equipment, such as vehicle radios, consoles and base transmitters, will likely follow, said Essex County Emergency Services Director Donald Jaquish.

"We're getting started, although I'm not sure if the APA (Adirondack Park Agency) and the DEC (State Department of Environmental Conservation) will delay us or not. We require permits that may take longer than we thought."

SAME UMBRELLA

The county is replacing a 1950s-era analog radio system with a state-of-the-art digital network. The major holdup so far has been allocation of Federal Communications Commission-permitted VHF high-band channels.

Now the county has the radio frequencies it needs, so the project is entering the infrastructure construction phase, Jaquish said.

The project will bring local police, fire, ambulance and highway departments under the same communications umbrella.

Fire and ambulance units will use VHF low-band pagers for initial dispatch, but two-way communications between mobile units and the County Enhanced 911 center in Lewis will be over digital high-band channels.

LITTLE HURDLES

The system has been designed to provide 95 percent radio coverage throughout the county, including remote towns like Newcomb, where communications are now difficult.

Supervisor Randy Preston (I-Wilmington), who chairs the County Public Safety Committee, hopes the project will wrap up this fall or spring 2013.

"It's taken a while. We're there now; we're going forward."

He said they just submitted a Unit Management Plan amendment to the DEC for co-location of the county's microwave dish on the existing tower on Whiteface Mountain.

"The DEC is telling us they may not get to it until July. That may hold us up. We're hopeful it won't."

The next step is to issue requests for proposals for tower work, Preston said.

"We've made a great effort to co-locate (on existing towers). It should have minimum environmental impact."

He said they're hopeful things will go smoothly.

"These little hurdles keep popping up."

Email Lohr McKinstry at: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com