Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
By ANTHONY SPINELLI
Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
OXFORD, Conn. — Dead zones that for years have knocked out radio transmissions for emergency services and town workers have prompted officials to apply for a $400,000 federal grant to buy modern equipment.
The money will be used to buy new high-band radios for police, firefighters, ambulance crews and public works employees, Fire Chief Scott Pelletier said.
The existing low-band radio system is more susceptible to signal disruption from the town’s hilly topography. It has been in operation since the 1940s.
“We have a bunch of dead spots on Route 34,” Pelletier said. “We have them on Route 188; a few on Route 67; a few near the Naugatuck town line and a few by Southbury.”
Users of the old radios in these areas have trouble radioing back to the dispatch center once at the scene, Pelletier said.
“It’s difficult, if not impossible,” he said.
The town’s radio transmitters are on top of the town garage.
Many other towns and cities in the region, including Seymour and Southbury, have already updated their radios with the high-band frequencies. From a financial perspective, a previous grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed, First Selectman August Palmer III said. He does not expect the new application to fail, but if it does, town officials should consider using tax dollars to buy a new system, he said.
“We’re going to have to talk about it because it’s becoming critical,” Palmer said.
Another problem with the old low-band systems, as police in Ansonia have discovered, is the difficulty of finding replacement parts for an outmoded technology.
Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale has said his city also needs the new high-band radios, which could cost as much as $425,000. Ansonia has hired a communications consultant to create bid specifications for a new radio system.
The new system is also helpful because it allows police in one community to communicate with officers in another.
No officers or members of the public have been harmed because of a breakdown in communications, but police fear that is a possibility.