<p>The Duke County sheriff has secured $1.7 million in state funding for the next phase of upgrading radio communications for Martha’s Vineyard emergency departments.</p>
The Duke County sheriff has secured $1.7 million in state funding for the next phase of upgrading radio communications for Martha’s Vineyard emergency departments.
The grant comes from the Massachusetts 911 Department, which oversees the 911 emergency call system in the commonwealth.
It is the second part of a four-phase project, Sheriff Bob Ogden said.
“This is the construction piece of it,” Sheriff Ogden said, speaking about the project. “This is when we start building the infrastructure, while the first year was all about planning.”
The planning phase began last year when the proposal to upgrade the Island’s emergency services communication networks was reviewed by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact (DRI).
The commission approved the plan to build a new 140-foot emergency services tower at the Oak Bluffs transfer station as well as refurbishing five towers already in place in different locations.
Currently, Island emergency services personnel rely on a radio system that uses outdated technology. The system includes copper lines that have degraded to a point where there is little to no service in many key points on the Island.
The current network also relies on a so-called spoke and hub system, with a centralized tower at the sheriff’s office near the airport. If the centralized tower, or hub, goes down, Island emergency services departments would lose their ability to communicate with each other. And if one of the spokes goes down, an entire town could lose the ability to communicate with dispatch and other departments.
“There are hundreds of examples where police, fire and EMS haven’t been able to communicate with each other,” the sheriff said. “It poses a real threat to public safety.”
The new network will operate on a redundant system, creating a backup loop for communications to hop one of the other five towers in the event of a storm or a situation where communication through the closest tower goes down. Essentially, the sheriff said the new system will create backup capability which does not exist currently.
He also said the new network will be a closed public safety communications system so nonemergency personnel can’t tap into the chatter with police radios and possibly clog the system.
“The state is confident that we are doing the right thing and moving in the right direction for supporting MV communication,” the sheriff said.
He said the plan calls for the infrastructure to be built by the end of 2020; from there the department can go on to the next phases of development.
Comments
I started volunteering as a
Kevin Brennan-FF/EMT Oak BluffsI started volunteering as a firefighter and EMT in 1982 and served in PA, DE, and in a County System in Maryland which combined paid and volunteer professionals. In those days, emergency radios work as well as could be expected. Most recently I volunteered for more than 30 years in Bergen County New Jersey (population greater than 850,000) where I also served as a volunteer County EMS Coordinator planning for and responding to all emergencies requiring more than 5 ambulances, including one exhausting and horrific response in September of 2001. In that role, I carried 3 different two-way radios (local, County and State). They each worked well. I could be heard for miles and miles. I have responded to thousands of calls over those years.
I moved on-island several years ago. Beyond any doubt, emergency communication on Martha’s Vineyard puts your volunteer and paid professionals, your friends and neighbors, in a dangerous situation during each and every call we respond to. I often am unable to hear the dispatcher’s message and just as often dispatchers and crew members are unable to hear each other (Is the scene safe? Chief, which hydrant do you want this pumper to hit?). We’ve been lucky up until now – as far as I know, no emergency responder has been injured or died as a result of our poor communication system. There have clearly been instances when a pumper did not hit the closest hydrant because the chauffer could not hear the Chief who as just 1000 feet away.
It’s my hope that all steps of this communication system improvement project are completed as soon as possible (step 1 has a completion date of 2020) and that all Vineyard emergency responders are able to stay safe until our Communication System is brought up to modern standards – after all, we watched and heard our astronauts on the Moon 50 years ago - and they were "loud and clear".
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