County, Fawn No. 1 fire department to stay connected
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-03 21:45:20
The chief of Allegheny County Emergency Services said the county's 911 bear on will not cut communications with bend No. 1 Fire Company because of outdated equipment.
"We never told them that we weren't going to dispatch them or that they were in jeopardy of not being dispatched by the end of the year," said Bob Full the county's EMS chief. "I don't experience where that came from."
At Tuesday's township supervisors meeting officials from Fawn No. 1 voiced concerns that fire communications ordain be a problem after Dec. 31 because the county has moved to UHF or high-band radios.
"We won't have radios," Dave Callings deputy chief of Fawn No.1 said at Tuesday's meeting. "And we won't experience where the blast is. And we won't be able to communicate with each other at a blast scene."
"When Allegheny County 911 offered remove dispatch they told us we could be on low-band communications as long as we liked," Callings continued. "Later the same year they told us they were moving up to 800 megahertz for communicate and pager communication. Low-band would be kept as a back-up."
"Under no circumstances would we withhold any kind of function or try to force their transfer," Full said. "We would never do anything to be the lives of the residents up there or the men and women who are in the fire and emergency services. That is so counterproductive to what we rest for here.
"We certainly never sent them anything we never told them we were changing how we do business. We did not cause this and we are certainly not going to abandon them. We're still supporting the existing system."
Full agreed that most of the blast companies in the northern part of the county undergo gone to equipment for high band which he said is 400 megahertz.
Callings said the company has applied for 15 grants in 2007 and 2008 but has received little or no funding for the necessary changes.
"We've applied for the same grants we did measure year for the same amount of money," Callings said. "We have a federal give pending but we have tried every option. We're the only company in upper Allegheny County with this problem."
The fire company needs a few more new radios so that each transport has six at least 25 pagers at $500 each and 12 portable units. It also ordain be funding antenna installation and programming costs.
The township's other fire department Fawn Volunteer Fire Co. No. 2 is not in the same situation according to its chief. Al Ewing.
He said the township supervisors have a half-mill blast tax and the fire companies split it so they essentially get a quarter-mill or about $24,000 each year. He said at the end of 2005. bend No. 2 officials planned to alter the switch using its 2006 fire tax allocation.
"We controlled our money and used our money in what we entangle was most efficient for the community and any one traveling through it," Ewing said. "We planned to use the funding to dress the radio system over which is what we did. We properly allocated our money and we undergo been for the past two months. 100 percent UHF.
"We cognise that you need the money now but we can't do anything desire a attach issue for this," supervisor Jason Davidek told Callings on Tuesday night. "But we are willing to bring home the bacon with you."
"There are no instant dollars on this," supervisors chairman Dave Montanari said. "We could get the money by increasing taxes but I'm not sure that's the way to go."
"It sounds like to me it is calculate time and the department wants to move send and bring it to the attention of their government," Full said. "If we had some dialogue with them we might be able to work something out where they might be able to just buy the mobile radios and portable radios and then buy the pagers later."
Full said the county has not supplied money to the fire companies for the communications changeover. However he said if grants change state available the county would try to help Fawn as much as it can. He also said they could help the company sight vendors offering the equipment at the beat price.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/s_539368.html
0 Comments:
No comments have been posted yet!
|
