By Kevin Flowers
Erie Times-News, Pa.
ERIE COUNTY, Pa. — The splintered radio communications and outdated equipment used by many Erie County emergency responders has been a major public safety issue for years.
Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper thinks the situation is putting lives at risk.
That is one reason why Dahlkemper believes that in the next few years, county government will have to take the lead in putting together -- and paying for -- a new state-of-the-art, countywide radio network that will likely cost $20 million or more.
Dahlkemper said she has talked about the issue with members of the region’s public safety community, and said she believes the county is financially stable enough to purchase the equipment needed for the upgrade, via a long-term capital improvement bond.
Affected municipalities, police agencies, volunteer fire departments and ambulance companies across Erie County, Dahlkemper said, would be asked to “contribute at least something” financially to the project, which would likely take years to complete.
“It’s not going to be an easy sell to the public or (Erie) County Council,” said Dahlkemper, who stressed that no decision has been made about purchasing the radio system and that many details still need to be worked out.
“But it’s got to happen. There’s no more Band-Aids,” Dahlkemper said. “And I don’t want to see us lose a firefighter or police officer because there was an emergency situation and they couldn’t talk to each other.”
Erie County’s emergency workers currently use separate radio frequencies to hear dispatched calls and to talk to their colleagues over the radio. Splintered radio communications have been a longtime issue for many public safety workers nationwide.
The problem was highlighted during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when firefighters could not hear police radio broadcasts warning that the north tower of the World Trade Center was about to collapse.
Officials at the county’s 911 center in Summit Township have used computer software to patch low-band frequencies together, but that is considered a temporary fix.
County Council has signed off on a $65,190 county-funded study of how best to implement a proposed new “next generation” radio system that would allow local emergency responders to communicate on common frequencies and replace the fragmented system they now use.
MCM Consulting Group Inc., of McMurry, is handling the study, which will be completed later this year.
County officials have said MCM is expected to determine the best and most cost-effective way to implement the new system, taking into account the radio-related technology currently in place at the county’s 911 center in Summit Township; the county’s existing radio tower infrastructure; and innovations likely to be available within the next five years.
“We’ll wait for the study to come back,” Dahlkemper said, “but I think that everybody’s going to have to contribute ... every department, every municipality. There’s a lot to work out, but we’re not just taking this on by ourselves.
“When it comes down to people’s lives,” Dahlkemper said, “what’s a life worth?
Jim Hawryliw, chief of the Fairfield Hose Co., agrees with Dahlkemper that the time has come for local officials to fix the problem -- once and for all.
A long-term solution has never been implemented, Hawryliw said, primarily because of the immense cost involved.
“We use low-band radios that are extremely out-of-date,” Hawryliw said. “I need to be able to talk to my guys and my girls inside a fire. If you can’t, people will die.”
Erie County Councilman Edward T. DiMattio Jr. also believes the new radio system is necessary.
“But it’s going to cost a fortune,” said DiMattio, who has been heavily involved in meetings with emergency responders about the issue. “I’ve told these volunteer firefighters, ‘If this happens, you’re going to have to go out and help us sell this to the community.’ I’ve asked some of them how long the current system can last, and they tell me three to five years,” DiMattio said. “That’s scary. Nobody makes or maintains some of this technology anymore.”
DiMattio wants to explore whether state and/or federal grant funds can help pay for a new radio system. He also expects plenty of conversation about the issue in the coming months.
“Every time we’re trying to short-term fix stuff right now, it’s throwing good money after bad,” DiMattio said. “Quite honestly, I don’t know how exactly we’re going to do this. But it does need to happen.”