Putnam, CT – During Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting, a proposal to allocate approximately $80,000 of unspent ARPA funds to upgrade radio infrastructure for the East Putnam Fire Department passed unanimously.
Chief Abe Walker, East Putnam Fire Department (EPFD), explained that the funds would be used to purchase new radios to replace aging radios within the department. Included in the purchase would be 5 radios with technology upgrades to allow the department to communicate with mutual aid partners.
With the $80,288.85, the department will be purchasing 5 dual band UHF/800 MHz mobile radios to mount in each fire apparatus, these radios will enable units to communicate with their own dispatch center, Quinebaug Valley Emergency Communications, and with mutual aid partners such as Webster, and multiple Rhode Island Departments where EPFD responds multiple times a year. Departments that have already switched to 800Mhz are not backward compatible with standard UHF radios completely severing communications paths without upgrades. EPFD is also a large way through the multi-year process of obtaining the required authorizations to operate on their own talk group within the statewide Connecticut Land Mobile Radio Network (CLMRN) utilized by Connecticut State Police and municipal fire and police departments statewide.
5 VHF mobile radios will also be purchased for each apparatus allowing units to communicate with the WA dispatch center (covering Putnam’s Special Service District), Putnam Fire Department, and several RI departments that have not completed their transition to the 800 MHz system.
The remaining 28 radios will be UHF portable radios issued to all interior firefighters. These radios are utilized to communicate with Quinebaug Valley Emergency Communications (QVEC), which dispatches for nearly 30 towns in Eastern Connecticut including the EPFD, and for all fire ground tactical channels during emergency incidents. When the question of “Will these radios save a life” was asked by a Selectman, Chief Walker explained that while the radio itself is unlikely to save a life, if a firefighter becomes disoriented or injured in a fire and is unable to transmit a “Mayday” message due to the failure of a dated radio it could be the difference between their life or death.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds originate from the federal government to assist in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. A portion of these funds was allocated to state and local governments to be utilized for the following purposes:
- Support public health expenditures, by, for example, funding COVID-19 mitigation efforts, medical expenses, behavioral healthcare, and certain public health and safety staff
- Address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, including economic harms to workers, households, small businesses, impacted industries, and the public sector
- Replace lost public sector revenue, using this funding to provide government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue experienced due to the pandemic
- Provide premium pay for essential workers, offering additional support to those who have and will bear the greatest health risks because of their service in critical infrastructure sectors
- Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure, making necessary investments to improve access to clean drinking water, support vital wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and expand access to broadband internet