Bucks County New Radio System

Why Does the Lingohocken Fire Company Need New Radios?
Bucks County and thus the Lingohocken Fire Co. has been mandated to upgrade our radios by the Federal Communications Commission. Bucks County is driving the current changes to the system. The radio system we have now works most of our response district, although there are some spots with weak coverage. The County has advised that they are receiving interference from digital cable signals and the demand for frequencies from all sorts of users is driving the change to narrowband. The last radio system upgrade occurred approximately 15 years ago - so our entire 2-way radio system infrastructure is 15 years old. In today's age of electronics, 15 years is a long time (think of your TV, computer, etc. which are close cousins to the technology in the radios - except that our radios must perform effectively in much more difficult environments). The County is purchasing the "head-end" infrastructure - the dispatch radio system in the 911 Center in Ivyland - and we must purchase the mobile and portable radios that we use to communicate to the dispatchers. More information on this is available from the County website -
http://www.buckscounty.org/government/departments/EmergencyServices/EmergencyCommunications/RadioProject.aspx
 
Are There Less Expensive Alternatives?
The Bucks County Fire Chiefs and Firefighter's Association (of which Lingohocken is a part), recognizing the significant financial impact that this would entail, voted unanimously in June of 2010 to recommend to Bucks County to move to a system that would allow the use of some of our existing radios, potentially reducing the overall cost of the project by approximately 10%. This recommendation was not selected by the County, thus requiring us to make the full switch to the new system. We have no other alternative - we have been advised that the current system that is run by the County will be turned off in 2013. We are currently estimating that the cost to Lingohocken Fire Company for the radio system upgrade will be approximately $175,000, although this cost may change somewhat and does not include any spare radios. If you have further questions regarding the radio system choice, these should be directed to Mr. Peter Ference, Director/911 Coordinator. His contact information is in the link above.
 
When Does the Fire Company Need to Purchase The New Radios?
It is been recommended that we order new radios by June 2012, which will allow the appropriate lead time to get the radios in, and have them programmed by November 2012 so that any issues can be resolved prior to turning off the old system. Note that we have already used existing funds to replace our pagers to be compatible with the new system. A new pager costs between $400-500, and each of our firefighters must have one on the county system to be alerted to an emergency in a timely manner to provide the timely response that you expect from us.
 
How Will You Fund This Purchase?
As with the previous radio system upgrade, which occurred 15 years ago, the County Commissioners have floated a bond that will partially be used to fund the radio program. We have been advised that we should be able to finance our radios through that bond, distributing the costs over an approximately 10-15 year time period. The interest rate on the bond is 2.74%, and we have been told that whatever interest rate the County was able to negotiate, would be the interest rate provided to us. We can also pay for radios through our Firefighters' Relief Association funding, which we use to purchase insurance, turnout gear, hose, ladders and other vital firefighter safety equipment. More information can be found on Relief Associations here -
http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Department/Info/Fire/
We have also applied as part of a regional grant from the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant program for money
for this project -
http://www.fema.gov/firegrants/afggrants/index.shtm
However, we must also use these funding sources for a project to replace all of our self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), which is approaching its 15-year lifespan as well. The SCBA project is also anticipated to cost us more than $200,000, and is necessary not only due to the age of this equipment, but ongoing issues with the breathing apparatus starting to fail, and not meeting current standard for protection in case of credible terrorism scenarios.
 
Do All Emergency Services Need to Make The Switch?
Yes - Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services are all faced with the costs of changing our radios.