A radio dead zone on Route 34 is only one part of the communication troubles the town’s emergency services face.
Aging dispatch equipment at the Seymour Police Department has prompted its own problems, including a breakdown in January that cut off nearly all emergency services communications, according to Tom Eighmie, the town’s Director of Emergency Management.
Eighmie presented a status report of the equipment at the Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday night, where the board voted to include $275,000 for a new console in its regular annual capital plan. The funding must also be approved by the Board of Finance before going before voters this spring with the town’s budget proposal.
The Breakdown
Between 4:30 p.m. on Friday Jan. 14, and 9 a.m. the following Monday, Eighmie said the console malfunctioned, resulting in a communications blackout. Total communications were not restored until Jan. 19 at 3 p.m., Eighmie said.
“There was no public works communication, no fire communications, no EMS communications, no ability to dispatch. The police dispatched themselves to talk to the cruisers but they could not talk to anybody else,” Eighmie said.
The communications system is 15 years old.
Dead Zone
The dispatch problems are separate from a communication dead zone along Route 34, brought to light last week by the Seymour Police Union, which complained the dead zone caused safety issues for officers.
The union said in a letter to Chief Michael Metzler that a police officer was assaulted Feb. 11 on Argonne Terrace in the dead zone — and had no way to call for help.
The town has been working to install communication equipment at an AT&T tower in Oxford to get rid of the dead zone.
Eighmie said new equipment at police dispatch would work hand-in-hand with communications equipment slated to be installed at the Oxford tower to eliminate the dead zone and restore full reliability to the town’s aging communications infrastructure.
Eighmie emphasized Tuesday that a new console will resolve that problem by combining the signals from the soon-to-be-operational Oxford tower with the tower already operating in Seymour, providing full coverage.
“The console and the tower would work together,” Eighmie said.
The Vote
The Board of Selectmen voted 7-0 to include $275,000 for the console in the regular annual capital plan. The plan is voted on each spring with the town’s operating budget.
The spending plan is different from the special five-year capital plan that was rejected by voters last month, which was a long-term borrowing proposal for big ticket items.
The Board of Selectmen Tuesday also approved adding money to the capital plan for a fire department rescue truck and a Department of Public Works truck, two other items that were originally in the rejected five-year capital improvement plan.
The regular annual capital request will combine financing from four to 10 years with grants to pay for the items, so that there is not an increase on the tax dollar, said Selectman John Conroy Jr.
Eighmie is cautiously optimistic.
“Now it’s up to the Board of Finance,” he said following the meeting at Town Hall Tuesday.
