LITTLE VALLEY —More than 20 volunteer fire chiefs asked Cattaraugus County lawmakers Wednesday to help fire companies in districts 1, 2 and 3 buy new high-band fire radios.
Machias Fire Department Chief Chuck Phetteplace asked members of the Cattaraugus County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee to support a resolution to buy Motorola mobile, portable and base radios for the 23 companies for $812,213.
Half of the county’s fire departments have already begun using the new high-band radios, received through state grants, Phetteplace said. In some cases, mutual aid companies cannot communicate with each other.
The Machias fire chief, acting as a spokesman for the other departments, said the resolution contained a “shortfall” in the number of radios for each department, and should contain pagers as well.
Phetteplace said the county Office of Emergency Services was able to negotiate with Motorola for a deeper discount for the large number of radios — 127 mobile radios, based on one per truck; 23 base stations; and 66 portables, based on three per department. Phetteplace said it would be better to have five portables per department instead of three.
“The poorest districts in the county need help,” Phetteplace said. “Give them what they need. Give them what they deserve. We understand the cost to the county, but it’s still the bare minimum.”
Like others in the county, fire districts 1, 2 and 3 — representing the northern, western and central fire companies — applied for state grants more than once, Phetteplace said. They lost out on funding at each opportunity and can’t afford to buy new radios on their own, he added.
The county is also maintaining both the old low-band system and the new high-band system for other fire districts, plus the cities of Olean and Salamanca.
Phetteplace said that with the discounts Motorola is offering, the cost, including the additional radios the fire services was asking for, would be about $1.3 million.
County Administrator Jack Searles offered several options to the objectives in the resolution costing $812,214, including a lease option. An added wrinkle was an announcement last week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo offering millions in new grants for emergency communications, he said.
The county administrator suggested the resolution be tabled or the amount changed. Given the tight timetable for applying for the grant, representatives from the fire districts, Emergency Services and the Legislature could meet soon to “hash out the details,” he added.
“Give us a little more time,” Searles said.
Legislator James J. Snyder, R-Olean, chairman of the Finance Committee, said one option added only $268,000 to the $812,000 originally proposed.
The resolution, which would authorize a one-time payment for the radios, was sponsored by Legislature Chairwoman Paula Stockman, R-South Dayton; Howard VanRensselaer, R-Randolph; and Minority Leader Susan Labuhn, D-Salamanca.