By Nick Sambides Jr.
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
Copyright 2007 Bangor Daily News

BANGOR, Maine -- Penobscot County commissioners are two or three weeks away from picking a vendor to supply a key element to the finished regional communications center: fiber-optic wiring.

"We have to work on our telephone and broadband capabilities," Penobscot County Administrator Bill Collins said Tuesday. "The issue really is that in order to get data out, our phone system as it's configured now is not adequate."

The copper wiring of the third floor of the Penobscot County Courthouse, the eventual site of the new dispatch center, cannot handle high-volume data transmissions, Collins said.

Such transmissions are key elements to a patrol car-based laptop computer system Penobscot County sheriff's deputies and other local police are due to get within six weeks and a new software program which will transmit data to fire departments around the county at emergency scenes, Collins said.

As Collins understands it, the firefighters' program is designed to provide any important information firefighters might need at a fire or accident scene.

Collins told the commissioners during a meeting Tuesday that several possible vendors, including Verizon, had already toured the third floor of the Penobscot County Courthouse. If all goes well, work on installing the new wiring and telephone system will begin within three months, he said.

The wiring project will not impede installation or use of the patrol car-based system, Collins said. Local and county police will transmit data over state police lines until the RCC system is operational.

Jim Ryan, the communications center's director, said he expects construction on the new site to finish by April 20, with the new center becoming operational by mid-May.

The dispatch center's move from the basement of the 3rd District Court building on Hammond Street to the courthouse had been slated to be completed by the end of 2006, but the project has been delayed to meet fire code and other building requirements.

When it is finished, the county will have an up-to-date dispatch center, Ryan said, that will also fit in with the historic nature and design of the 1903 building.