Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Englewood’s fire radio fails in outlying area

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 00:21:15 -0400

Englewood’s fire radio fails in outlying area
By: AUTUMN HUGHES
Source: The Daily Post-Athenian
10-14-2003

ENGLEWOOD – Highway 411 may be bringing progress to Englewood, but the highway
marks the point of failure for the town’s fire department radio frequency.

“In the past month we’ve had quite a bit of problems with radio frequencies in the
county fire system,” Assistant Fire Chief Chuck Reid told the Englewood City
Commission during its meeting Monday night.
He added when emergency personnel cross Highway 411, they can’t contact the E-911
Center via their radio frequencies.

Mayor Lance McConkey said the highway itself doesn’t interfere with the
frequencies, the difficulty occurs “once you get out past Nonaburg and those
areas.”

Reid said he sent a letter notifying the E-911 Center about the problem with the
radio frequency so it is on record with emergency authorities. He added the county
fire departments use ultra high frequency (UHF), but no other local agencies are
on the same frequency, instead opting to use very high frequency (VHF).

“It would be smart for us to get a repeat frequency and a Simplex frequency,” Reid
said, adding each frequency costs $200.

McConkey said the frequency the police department uses is licensed to the McMinn
County Sheriff’s Department. He said it may be a good idea to consolidate
Englewood’s police and fire department radio frequencies.

The Commission approved designating $400 from Englewood police and fire budgets to
purchase licensed radio frequencies for the departments’ use.

And, although it wasn’t at the top of the agenda, dirt was still a topic of
discussion at the Englewood City Commission meeting Monday night.

The Commission discussed two dirt issues: The dirt removed from the proposed City
Hall building site and a dirt swap between Englewood Community Park and the
construction at Englewood Elementary School.

The Commission approved taking bids for the removal of dirt from the City Hall
building site. “We have almost got everything up to par,” McConkey said.

He added that City Attorney Herb Williams advised the Commission to advertise the
dirt and take a lump sum bid for all the dirt removed from the building site.

Commissioner Raymond Roach said he is waiting to hear from a man who told him he’d
pay to remove the dirt.

“The attorney’s advice is the dirt is city property and it has to be auctioned
off,” McConkey said.
The Commission later tabled discussion of dirt removal from Englewood Community
Park.
Roach said the town is getting topsoil in exchange for fill dirt being used in the
construction at Englewood School. It is a moneyless exchange, he said.

“How about we don’t give any dirt away until we figure out what’s what,” McConkey
said, adding that even a pile of dirt owned by the city is still city property.

The final discussion of the meeting was brought up by Commissioner Ronnie Moses
who presented a “Sept. 19 letter” from Cline relinquishing his duties as
supervisor of Englewood’s Public Works Department.

“Joe wrote it at one point over an issue he thought he had no control over,”
McConkey said, adding he talked to Cline who agreed to rescind the letter. “It was
an issue that took about 30 seconds to talk about and be over with.”

Cline said it was not a letter, but a private memorandum to the mayor.  McConkey
added since it was a correspondence to him personally, if he had thought it should
be brought to the Commission he would have done it.

Cline said the memo was written out of frustration over several issues, one of
which being that after the last Commission meeting Ronnie Moses told Cline
he would have made the motion to dismiss him if he had the support of the
other commissioners. E-mail: [email-masked]

http://www.dpa.xtn.net/index.php?table=news&template=news.view.subscriber&newsid=104640

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