By Dick Lindsay, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Lee, Ma. — The town will use a $148,000 state grant to complete a two-year upgrade of its emergency communications system.

The funding from the state 9-1-1 Department of the Executive Office of Public Safety will pay for new portable radios for Lee s volunteer fire department and volunteer ambulance squad, according to Lee Police Chief Ronald Glidden. The money will also cover the cost of improving the fire alarm system that alerts the volunteers to an emergency and equipping the last police cruiser with a computer.

Glidden said he was surprised to learn the grant was higher than the $131,000 the town received last year to begin the upgrade.

“We were able to receive the funding because it’ll benefit multiple agencies within the town and we can take on Tyringham as we have a regional dispatch center,” Glidden said.

Through the grant, Tyringham Police will be able to enhance its communication with Lee, which provides emergency dispatch services for both communities.

Police Chief Peter L. Curtin cited how the computer in his town s lone police car will be linked directly to law enforcement information Lee Police can already access.

“You can run numbers from license plates directly from the cruiser rather than calling dispatch for the information,” said Curtin, who s also a selectman in Tyringham.

Furthermore, the grant will allow Lee s two public schools to be in direct contact with the town s emergency dispatch center as Lee Elementary School and Lee Middle and High School will each have their own portable radio.

The new equipment is part of the school systems effort to improve its communications with local authorities, according to Superintendent Jason “Jake” McCandless.

“To have the chief use the grant for us is great,” McCandless said. “We re already working on a new memorandum of understanding regarding our relationship with the police.”

A total of $91,000 of the grant is targeted for the upgrade of the emergency radio system, with the remaining $57,000 going toward the $167,000 needed to staff the dispatch center, located in the basement of Town Hall.

While taxpayers this fiscal year fully funded the four full-time and one part-time dispatch positions, the local tax dollars saved by using the grant will be used toward the fiscal 2011 town budget, Lee officials said.

About the Author
Contact Dick Lindsay at [email protected] or 413/496-6233.

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