Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FEMA funds go toward purchase of communications equipment

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 03:04:43 -0500

FEMA funds go toward purchase of communications equipment

By AMY L. ZITKA February 12, 2003

Irena Pastorello/The Middletown Press Middletown Fire Chief Rob Ross was instrumental in
securing a FEMA grant for new communication devices.

Middletown Press Staff
MIDDLETOWN -- City firefighters will now be able to communicate better with other city
agencies and area fire departments using equipment purchased through a federal grant.

Middletown Fire Department officials on Tuesday handed out 64 new radios and 64 new backup
pagers to firefighters that were bought using about $70,000 of a $220,481 Federal
Emergency Manage-ment Agency grant.

The new Motorola HT1000 16-channel, high band radios, which are worth about $50,000, are
replacing the old portable radios the firefighters were using, Middletown Fire Chief
Robert Ross said.

"It takes the incompatibility problems away," he said. With the old radios the fire
department was "limited in operations" and the department could not communicate with other
city agencies, Ross added.

With the new radios, if the department assists in mutual aid or must operate with other
Middletown agencies, it will be able to communicate over the air, Ross said.

They will allow firefighters to be able to talk with the Middletown Police Dept., South
Fire District, Westfield Fire Dept., Middlesex Hospital and Middlesex Paramedics, he said.

"We’ll be able to go over to statewide frequencies and operate with Meriden, Cheshire and
Wallingford," Ross said.

"As we grow in capabilities, like haz-mat, this will enable us to receive support or be
called in to support."

"It’ll be a good asset to the department," Local 1073 President Matt Scarrozzo said of the
radios. With the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the New York Fire Dept. had a large
loss of firefighters in part to a lack of communications with radios, he said.

"It’ll help in safety. It’s a definite plus."

"I commend the chief for doing his grant work," Scarrozzo said. Ross, Capt. Robert Bradley
and Capt. Robert Kronenberger wrote up the FEMA grant request last spring.

About $20,000 of the grant was used for radio alerting pagers to create a backup paging
system to ensure off-duty staff can be recalled, Ross said.

"We now rely on an outside contract company," he said of the paging system. If a major
event occurs, telecommunication systems may be down.

"This gives a link from our dispatch to the firefighters. There’d be no middleman. It
ensures a way of notifying our people to come back during a large-scale disaster, natural
or man-made."

The remainder of the grant funding is being used to buy hazardous materials equipment and
training personnel for hazardous material responses.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7020915&BRD=1645&PAG=461&dept_id=33198&rfi=6
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