Grant may fund siren modification; county to handle fire dispatch
By carolyn o’connell
Staff Writer
OCEANPORT — The way emergency calls are received and heard within the borough will soon change.
The emergency sirens heard throughout the borough will be replaced with more modern sirens, which are said to be more people friendly.
The two sirens, as described by Councilman Michael Mahon, are throwbacks to World War II, when sirens were needed for air raid alerts. "The new sirens will not be as shrill," he said.
The sirens’ purpose today is to alert emergency personnel to a borough emergency.
Over the years the sirens needed continuous repairs in order to stay functioning. At times one or both sirens have remained inoperable until money could be set aside in the borough’s budget to pay for the cost of repair.
To make the necessary changes to the siren system, the borough is applying for a domestic preparedness grant, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, that will cover the $75,000 cost of purchasing two new sirens.
Although borough officials don’t have the grant money in hand, Mahon noted, the fast action to write the grant and the borough’s close proximity to Fort Monmouth will give the borough a better chance in being awarded the grant.
According to Mahon, the sirens will be capable of public addresses, verbal messaging for such uses as school closing or flooding, which the borough is prone to.
Emergency personnel are additionally notified with pagers for emergency calls, may it be fire or first aid. However, Mahon noted that pagers don’t always work.
"With lightning strikes to the antenna or power surges, as we have had in the past," said Mahon, "we lose the ability to page."
Updating the sirens is not the only change the borough is planning to improve communication in emergency situations.
Within the month the borough’s fire department will change from being dispatched locally to being dispatched by Monmouth County 911 services.
The fire department will be working with the county to convert pagers to receive county pages.
Because the borough has only two frequencies in which first aid, police and fire are dispatched, interference in communication has become a real problem.
With switching the dispatching of the fire department to the county’s emergency dispatch center, it allows the remaining services, first aid and police, to have their own frequencies."
According to Mahon, dispatching through the county will not cause a delay in response.
"The county’s 911 will enhance firefighter safety without cost to the borough," he said.
Firefighter safety, said Mahon, can be compromised with interference from other layering of communication, such as first aid and police," said Mahon. "That may mean that a message going out over the frequency may not get through."
He added, "The county’s 911 system is inherently better," said Mahon. "A call going into county will identify the caller, the location and the department responsible for responding."
As for residents reporting an emergency, nothing changes. Residents are still to call 911.