Sayreville public safety officials may receive 100 radios from the county as a temporary fix for problems with the existing public safety communications system.
A large contingent of members of the Sayreville police and fire departments and Emergency Medical Squad came to the Township Council meeting on Oct. 26 to convey the dire need for a new system.
“It’s been an existing problem for five years now,” said Police Officer Doug Gumprecht, president of Police Benevolent Association Local No. 98.
The Sayreville Police Department has 85 police officers.
A brand new public safety communications system was last implemented in 1998.
In December 2014, Gumprecht said on behalf of PBA 98 he filed a grievance with the township to address the unsafe working environment that the aging system has created for public safety officials.
“The system goes in and out,” he said. “In the past year, the system has been out 26 times.” Gumprecht said the department has to essentially cannibalize parts from other systems to make the system work.
He said the department has been fortunate that the Perth Amboy Police Department has been able to offer them some hand-held radios on their system. However, he said there are spots in the township where the borrowed radios do not work.
“This does not solve the problem,” he said.
Most recently, the system went offline last week, he said. When the system fails, the fire department and EMS squads have no recourse.
Fire Chief Rich Mulligan said the department was able to obtain 12 to 15 radios from the county Office of Emergency Management. The township has four volunteer fire companies with approximately 120 firefighters.
Vinnie Waranowicz, assistant fire chief, said firefighters responded to a call on Oct. 19 when the communications system went down. “We couldn’t talk to each other,” he said. “People were yelling, but we couldn’t hear each other.”
Waranowicz said communication is crucial when attacking a fire.
For example, he said if a team enters a burning house, the team on the outside is assisting the team inside the structure.
“If [the team in the house] gets stuck, the radios are their communication for help,” said Waranowicz.
After the discussion, council members voted in favor of a resolution authorizing $30,000 in engineering and research fees for increasing radio frequencies from 500 megahertz (MHz) to 700 MHz.
Business Administrator Dan Frankel said in his discussions with the county there would be three options for a temporary fix to the communication problem: 1. Continue utilizing Perth Amboy’s limited coverage. 2. Utilize radio frequency in East Brunswick, which would be similar to Perth Amboy’s coverage. 3. Utilize the radio frequency of the county Office of Emergency Management.
“The [county] has 100 radios available,” Frankel said.
Public safety officials agreed that the county’s offer of 100 radios would be the most viable short-term, temporary fix to the problem while they come up with a long-term solution.
Police Capt. Ronald Batko said the cost of a new radio communications system is estimated at approximately $3 million to $4 million.
“The cost of radios ranges from $3,000 to $4,000 each,” he said adding the public safety departments would need approximately 600 radios.
Councilwoman Victoria Kilpatrick said she is disturbed by the problems with the communications system.
“We are reactive in Sayreville when we should be proactive,” she said.
Kilpatrick said lessons should have been learned after the 9/11 attacks and after superstorm Sandy.
She said Verizon donated BlackBerry phones within hours when the township’s communications went down after Sandy. She suggested reaching out to those companies to see if that would be feasible again.
Mayor Kennedy O’Brien said long-term and short-term discussions would continue involving Frankel, representatives of the police department, fire department, EMS, as well as the information technology department.