Volunteers in Putnam criticize 911 system

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Volunteer responders criticize 911 dispatching

By TERRY CORCORAN

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: August 30, 2004)

GARRISON — Volunteer firefighters and ambulance personnel in western Putnam County say the system used to dispatch them is flawed and that precious response time is being lost.

"The danger is that we aren't getting the dispatches," said Capt. Jerry Moore of the Garrison Ambulance Corps. "They're calling for mutual aid at times when we're ready to handle the calls. We're just not getting our (dispatch) tones."

The problem is not the dispatch system, said Robert McMahon, the county's commissioner of emergency services. It's with the pagers that firefighters use to receive the dispatch tone.

"The pagers are just not very sensitive," he said.

Compounding the problem is the hilly terrain in western Putnam and the iron ore in those hills.

"The iron plays havoc with our communications," McMahon said.

Volunteers in western Putnam don't doubt that, but they say the problem has persisted for years and they want county officials to do something about it.

"We truly think they need to do an upgrade of the radio system, but county officials are balking at it," said Lt. Derek Tudor of Garrison ambulance. "It seems like they're in denial."

McMahon and Adam Stiebeling, his deputy commissioner, say that Putnam is taking steps to study the feasibility and cost of upgrading communications, but acknowledge that it's going to take time and money.

When the county's main dispatch center — dubbed 40-Control — is unable to reach westernmost Putnam, dispatchers call the Westchester center — 60-control — which can dispatch to Philipstown, including Garrison and Continental Village.

"We haven't lost any calls," McMahon said.

Still, volunteers say they are frustrated and feel the poor communications ties their hands.

"We're here to protect the community, and we want to do a good job," said Garrison Fire Chief Joe Surace. "But it's kind of hard to do that when you don't get the dispatch tones."

When someone in Putnam County dials 911, the call is answered at the county sheriff's headquarters in Carmel. If an ambulance or fire engines are needed, a dispatcher signals a tone, which is sent via telephone lines to one of several communications transmitters. Those are located on the Mount Nimham tower in Kent, the AT&T tower on Route 301 in Philipstown, on Tinker Hill in Putnam Valley and on the side of a steeple at the Graymoor monastery in Garrison.

Depending on the location and nature of the call, the signal can be sent to the transmitters individually or simultaneously. The transmitters, in turn, send out tones that are received on the pagers that volunteers carry. The pagers first sound a tone, followed by a dispatcher's voice that informs the listener on the location and nature of the call.

Volunteers in Garrison, Philipstown and Continental Village say that while they can hear the tones, they are not getting the subsequent voice messages. As a result, they say, volunteers in Putnam Valley are unnecessarily being summoned for mutual aid. Mutual aid is summoned after five minutes if no one responds to the initial tone.

County officials note that every fire and ambulance call in Putnam gets answered.

McMahon said one remedy would be to use microwave communication, which precludes the use of phone lines. He said the county is studying that, but noted that the microwave dishes used for such a system would have to be within the line of sight of one another so that hills don't interfere with the signal.

In the meantime, McMahon and Stiebeling said they were asking volunteers for patience until the situation is remedied.

"The radio vendor is trying to fix this problem. We're just the middleman," McMahon said. "We're asking volunteers to work with us. With continued cooperation, the calls are getting answered."

Send e-mail to Terry Corcoran

[TRUCK6018 50]

Maybe a secondary alert system, such as siren or horns might help. :-k

[Remember585 815]

This problem is also present in Westhcester County.

The hilly terrain along with the large rock-cut areas makes it almost impossible to trigger every single pager. In certain districts this problem is severe. Some have tried upgrading to uhf radios, repeaters and voters. Does it help? For the most part yes, but when your equipment ages or goes down, you're back to square one. The idea of using sirens or horns isn't bad, but even in small towns (like mine) house sirens and horns are inaudible in some spots. We did away with the horns in the late 90's due to the cost of repair and to humor our public. We have house sirens which are used during the daytime and on General / Full Alarms at night. We seem to do fine without them - assuming our pagers still activate. We have put up a larger tower, but in a uhf link, changed our tones and installed new antennas - pagers seem to be activating almost anywhere - but now we are finding out we can't hit the tower from portable in many spots. THE SAGA CONTINUES, AS IT PROBABLY WILL IN ALL OF WESTCHETER AND PUTNAM.