By Tony Reaves, Sun Journal
Original publication date: March 17, 2011

Paris, Maine — A planned upgrade to the county’s emergency communications will finally happen in July.

According to James Miclon, regional communications director for Oxford County, the Federally-mandated switch to narrow-band radio communication has been paid for with a $289,000 federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

The upgrade from wide band to narrow band, which will set different signals for five different communication towers across the county, has been contentious among some in the public safety community. Some have raised concerns the change would cause police, ambulance and other responders to have to switch signals to the nearest communication tower.

Miclon said that will rarely be a problem given the range and signal strength of the county’s communications towers, which sit atop Spruce Mountain, Streaked Mountain, Pleasant Mountain, Black Mountain and Peaked Mountain.

Dean Milligan, director of operations for Med-Care Ambulance Service, had asked for a meeting before the County Commission on Tuesday to discuss the change and called for a Voter System, which would automatically choose the best tower.

After the meeting, Milligan said he believed the system that will be finished this summer is better than the voter system, but it’s still not perfect. “There’s no indicator on our radio that tells us. It’s going to be by trial and error for us to pick the right tower,” Milligan said Tuesday.

Miclon said a separate grant for $13,600 will pay for training on the new system, and that he will hold a training session in April.

The $289,000 grant for equipment expires in August. Miclon said it was originally set to expire last August, but the county got an extension because several agencies hadn’t upgraded to narrow band equipment.

Miclon said the lack of communication was his own fault, and he takes responsibility for “assuming, which I shouldn’t have done, that everyone knew what was going on.”

According to Emergency Management Director Scott Parker, the county recently received a $25,000 grant for new narrow band radios for several agencies that didn’t have them yet.

The communications center is holding a Communications Training Conference for area responders from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 9.

Copyright © 2011 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy