OSWEGO COUNTY, NY – Faced with coverage concerns and “dead spots” in the communication system, emergency responders across Oswego County have debated the need for a new system for many years.
This past week, the Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee took the first steps toward putting an end to those concerns. The committee approved the creation of a capital project to conduct a full-scale communications system assessment in Oswego County, sending the matter on to the next step in the county’s committee system.
“This is the first step in the research for what we will need to improve or repair the emergency communications system in this county,” explained County Administrator Phil Church.
The committee approved the capital project with an initial $100,000 allocation.
“This is simply for the first phase,” Church said. “It is intended for the engineering, the design work and to find out what the needs are to design a system that will be an improvement over what we have.”
The first phase of the project, Church said, will address initial needs, such as coordinating the licenses of the UHF frequencies in Oswego County with Onondaga County.
“It will also focus on developing plans for gaining user input into the system to find out what is needed,” he said. “We will have meetings with user agencies around the county to determine what the needs are for a new system.”
Church said the initial funding will also pay for specifications and engineering designs. Finally, the first phase will include research into the budget numbers that will be necessary to fund the system.
“Once the first phase is complete, the Legislature will have the information it needs on what it will cost, how it will work and what type it will be so it can begin to go about financing it,” Church said.
“This is a multi-year project,” Church stressed. “We won’t have a new system in a month. It usually takes a few years to develop this kind of system from start to finish.”
Michael Allen, director of Oswego County E-911, said he is very pleased to see the county start the process.
“I am very pleased that we are moving in this direction,” Allen said. “Emergency services personnel will be, as well.
“If the legislature approves this expenditure, it will certainly give us the information that we need to move forward,” Allen added.
“This will create a (document) that we can use to seek qualified vendors to build the system for us,” he said. “The Legislature can then decide if we can do it.”
Within its plans, Church said that the county is researching grant funding that could help to pay for the additional project phases.
“We plan to work in cooperation with Onondaga and Madison counties to have more leverage for dollars,” Church said. “They are looking into the same type of project that we are.”
Church said that the resolution establishing capital project # 174 will be discussed Thursday at the Finance and Personnel meeting. If approved at that committee, the project will advance to the full floor of the Legislature for consideration.
