[Scan-DC] Lancaster Co pushing for new radio system; promises interops

[Alan Henney]

ARINC from Annapolis is building this system.


Intelligencer Journal/New Era (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)

December 18, 2013 Wednesday

New Radio System By Fall; 
Garners Praise Farm Preservation

BYLINE: Joe Hainthaler

SECTION: B; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 757 words

DATELINE: Lancaster, PA 

Staff Writer

jhainthaler at lnpnews.com

County emergency responders soon will have a new way to communicate.

Mike Weaver, director of Lancaster County-Wide Communications, told county commissioners Tuesday that the new radio system will be operational well before this time next year.

"We will be tested before the leaves are off the trees," Weaver said. 

Why do we need a new system?

Police, fire and ambulance officials gave many reasons Tuesday.

Among them:

nThe current inability to communicate among different types of responders and between departments.

nThe inability to keep communications private when necessary.

nThe difficulty of reaching or locating personnel inside buildings.

"Currently, I can't talk to the police department on the radio (and) they can't talk to me," said Keith Eshleman, Blue Rock Fire Rescue's Millersville station chief.

If police and firefighters are called to the same fire, they have to either wait to talk face to face or communicate through county dispatch, East Hempfield Township police Chief Stephen Skiles said.

During a potential school shooting or a natural disaster, "it's imperative that all first responders are able to talk to each other," he said.

C. Robert May, executive director of Lancaster EMS, said the new GPS-enabled hand-held radios that his people will get will improve safety by allowing him to know where they are when they're inside a structure.

And the ability to have a private conversation will be important if an EMT on a scene needs to call a doctor for advice. While EMTs don't typically share a patient's name, when the patient's address goes out over the scanner, such situations raise concerns with federal HIPAA health privacy rules, May said.

Weaver plans to give an update on the radio project at this morning's commissioners meeting, at 9:15 a.m. at the county government center, 150 N. Queen St.

The system, provided by Annapolis, Md.-based ARINC Inc., is expected to cost no more than $26 million, Weaver said. It is currently $276,054 under budget, including two sets of change orders approved Tuesday totaling $1.16 million, he said.

The county effort to upgrade its emergency radio system has been in the works since the late 1990s.

In 2008, after having spent about $14 million on an open-sky 800 MHz system similar to the one state police use across Pennsylvania, the commissioners decided to go in a new direction, citing problems with the system and the high cost of radios for police, fire and ambulance services.

"I'm excited to actually get the thing moving forward," said Skiles, who has served on the county's police radio committee for five years.

May said he's excited about the system as well, but "I'm less excited about the cost."

May said it will cost about $140,000 to put new radios in all Lancaster EMS vehicles and stations, and the long process was not helpful.

"Not knowing what year this was going to get done, it was hard to budget for it," May said.

If Lancaster EMS's application for funding through the federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant program is unsuccessful, the total will have to come out of operations, he said.

East Hempfield is in better shape on that score, Skiles said.

"The township wisely set aside (money for new radios) when this conversation started years ago," he said. New radios will cost his department between $130,000 and $135,000, Skiles said.

County commissioners also approved funding to preserve two farms and OK'd a farmer's request to exclude a little less than five acres from a 65-acre farm commissioners approved for preservation last month.

With the three actions, the county will end the year having preserved a total of 100,215 acres since the program began in 1980.

In Tuesday's three preservation actions, the county agreed to:

nSpend $120,289 on the development rights to a 67-acre crop and dairy farm on Peters Road in Earl Township owned by John S. and Miriam L. Stoltzfus.

Lancaster Farmland Trust will pay an additional $23,710.

nApprove the preservation of Harvey W. and Susan L. Espenshade's 74-acre dairy and crop farm on Black Swamp Road, Conoy Township, by tapping $94,579 in state and $118,224 in federal funds.

nReapprove the preservation of Paul and Ellen Zeiset's farm on Spring Grove Road in East Earl Township, at 60.5 acres, rather than the 65.3 acres approved Nov. 13. Before signing off on the agreement, the owners decided to keep five acres open for a use not allowed on preserved farmland, such as a nonconforming business use, according to Matt Knepper, director of the county Agricultural Preserve Board.