Survey of county?s radio equipment underway to locate specific problems

Ongoing radio communication problems were reviewed Monday at a special meeting of the Presque Isle County Public Health and Safety committee Chairman Don Field said he wants to ?get to the bottom of this because we have a problem, and we have to solve it somehow.? The dangerous situation became all too apparent when page tones to Onaway EMS crews were almost missed nearly two weeks ago.

If it weren?t for an astute EMS worker, recognizing radio sounds consistent with what is usually heard when tones are broadcast, the call would have been missed. A telephone call into Presque Isle County Central dispatch confirmed the ambulance run. It is potentially dangerous situations like this that nobody wants to see happen again. Representatives from Onaway, Rogers City, Posen, and Case Township fire departments, as well as EMS personnel and the Department of Natural Resources, were present at the meeting to find out what?s being done to finally fix a problem that has been going on for as long as anyone can remember, but only recently got worse.

?MY FIRST EXPERIENCE with this particular problem was last Monday,? said Andy Barth, State Electronics senior technician. ?I feel for you, there is a real issue. I?m here to fix it and take care of it. It?s a mess.? Barth?s honesty and ability to narrow some problems down in only a few visits had members of the audience encouraged that someone will finally make the radio equipment in the county work properly. ?Being the new guy on the block, I?m only giving history,? said Barth of what he?s been told of the situation with static, garbled messages, and pages that don?t get through. ?I like to get my hands on things. There?s a history of a lightning strike. I go by facts. There?s a domino effect going on with the system here.? Barth began a survey/inspection of the radio equipment on Tuesday. The Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners approved the cost of the $3,000 survey at a meeting in August. Each site in the county is expected to take a day to inspect.

?I will check out the equipment itself,? said Barth. ?Once that has been either adjusted or repaired, whatever the case is, then I will begin to look at the infrastructure. I will look at everything from the grounding, all the way up the antenna. ?I probably will climb right on up there and take apart a connector or two, inspect the antenna and make sure everything is the way it needs to be. That is the type of inspection that I am hoping to be able to do.?

FIELD SAID, to keep the process moving along any cost beyond the survey will be assessed at a budget meeting Friday, because the next meeting of the board isn?t until mid-October. Replacing the console at the sheriff?s department dispatch center could be the number one issue. It was repaired rather than replaced after a lightning strike in the summer of 2002. The cost of a new console could run between $48,000 and $114,000, but it?s a matter which may have to be taken up in court. ?If we have to go into Circuit Court to get that console replaced against the insurance company, we?ll do that,? said Field.

Field said the insurance company has closed the books on the claim, but the county will tell the insurance carrier the problem was never fixed properly. ?To me $114,000 is peanuts, compared to losing a life out there,? said Onaway fire chief Eric Rose, ?or one of us getting hurt because we can?t communicate.? ?Let me put it on record that if I would have been on board at the time of this lightning strike, I would have fought them (insurance carrier) until I was blue in the face,? said Barth. Barth said it?s ?almost insane to continue repairing this console.? State Electronics representative Dave Karschnick of Alpena said a letter will be given to the county to back up the claim that the equipment should have been replaced.

PETE VANDENBERG of Otec also confirmed another major issue on the west side of the county. VanDenBerg said, ?The issue in Onaway is maybe complicated by the console…(but) the Onaway repeater, brand-spanking new, is not working.? Karschnick reassured committee members his company would not be charging the county for anything relating to the Onaway repeater, installed by State Electronics. ?That should have been taken care of a long time ago,? he said. Barth and Karschnick were asked why something wasn?t done earlier. ?Obviously, I?m not here to backlash any company, especially my own,? Barth answered. ?That has nothing to do with it. But on an honest side, we need to get on top of it — should hav

e been on top of it, would have been on top of it, the whole thing — now, that?s what counts, now. Let?s get on top of it, right now.?

SALLY GRAINGER from Onaway EMS, who appeared before the county commissioners last Friday to express her concerns, told the committee she would hate to see a tragedy occur because of poor communications. ?Onaway is going to look terrible if something happens, but ultimately Presque Isle County is going to look bad, State Electronics is going to look bad if somebody dies if we can?t get a page,? Grainger said. ?As a commitment to you from me, I will find and fix,? said Barth.

The question of finding the money and doing it is another question, Field said. Grants, the 911 fund, as well as an anticipation note, are ways to finance the replacement of equipment and to further enable repairs to be made.

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