By John Latimer
The Lebanon Daily News (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 Lebanon Daily News
All Rights Reserved
From almost the moment it was proposed more than 41 2 years ago, the Lebanon County Emergency Management Agency’s $10.5 million communication upgrade has caused headaches for county administrators and area emergency responders.
Last night, county firefighters got a chance to air their grievances to county officials at a Lebanon County Firemen’s Association monthly meeting at the Union Water Works firehall in North Annville Township.
Representing the county were EMA Director Dan Kauffman, administrator Jamie Wolgemuth and Commissioners Jo Ellen Litz and Larry Stohler. Also on hand were two representatives from MA-COM Wireless Systems, the company contracted to build the new system.
After about an hour of discussion, the firefighters learned that the system is still not up and running as advertised, but EMA officials are working diligently with MA-COM engineers to correct the problems.
When first proposed in March 2002, the upgrade was supposed to bring EMA’s overburdened communication system into the 21st century by increasing the coverage of transmission, making the messages clearer and enhancing the way emergency responders could communicate with each other.
The price tag for accomplishing this was $10.5 million, which included the cost of increasing -- from three to seven -- the number of cell towers in the county, and providing radios and pagers to fire stations, police departments, ambulance agencies and their members.
In the past, most of the complaints about the system involved the unreliability of new digital pagers that deliver text messages to alert first-responders to emergencies. In some parts of the county, notably the Myerstown and Annville areas, messages were sometimes garbled or never received.
Most of the reliability issues were addressed about a year ago after the county came to an agreement with the distributor to switch pagers. However, gaps in coverage still remain, and some of those complaints were voiced again last night.
But the most serious complaint of the evening came from Annville Union Hose Fire Co. Chief Paul Longenecker. While testing the new portable and mobile radios, he said, he found that they did not always function inside buildings, making it impossible for firefighters to communicate with each other at the scene. If a radio cuts out, it could leave a firefighter stranded inside a building with no way to call for help, he said.
“We aren’t here to blame anybody,” Longenecker said. “We are scared for our lives. ... We are firefighters. We go into buildings. ... If we can’t communicate, we can’t even say we are trapped. We can’t say anything. You are done. ... I am not bringing body bags out on a watch of mine over any radio system.”
Kauffman acknowledged the problem and said that at this point, the radios are being used only by police officers and the EMA’s Hazmat Unit. He said he would not put firefighters at risk by rolling out the system until the problem is solved. In the meantime, firefighters will continue to use conventional radios to communicate at fire scenes, he said.
“I don’t want anybody here to think we are out to gamble with anybody’s life,” Kauffman said. "... Nobody here wants to see anybody in danger. Nobody here wants to see an inferior product. Nobody here wants to see the system fail. Unfortunately, it has been a long, hard road getting this system up. And we’ve had a lot of stumbling blocks. But at this point I can’t see throwing a $10 million radio system down the tubes.”
To the surprise of many in attendance, Kauffman explained that the county is still operating with three cell towers and that transmission signals are not as clear and strong as they eventually will be.
Problems with a dead area in the South Mountain region around Cornwall — where transmissions cut out — necessitated adding an eighth tower, he said, and the county is still awaiting parts for it. Additional equipment will also be located in the Millcreek and Annville areas to boost signal strength, he said.
Kauffman complimented MA-COM for working hard to find system flaws and correct them.
MA-COM representative Jim Magee said systems like Lebanon County’s typically take three years to work out the bugs. That anniversary is rapidly approaching. The county signed its contract with the company in December 2003.
Stohler, who is a volunteer with the Schaefferstown Fire Co. as well as the county commissioners’ liaison to EMA, said the delay was not costing the county additional funding.
Not everybody criticized the new system. Even with all its faults, the new system is better than the old one, said Chief Paul Snyder of Lickdale Fire Co.
Afterwards, Longenecker said he was pleased with the meeting’s outcome.
“I feel a lot more at ease that these radios aren’t going to be shoved on us,” he said. “We are not going to get the system until it is running at at least 95 percent. I think they do understand the problem and are working to fix it.”