Bethel F.D. Gets Grant From FEMA for Radios

By Mary Anderson

The Bethel firefighters have received a $7,371 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This Assistance to Firefighters Grant was awarded to Bethel for the purpose of upgrading its operations and improving safety. Specifically, the Bethel department applied for the grant in order to purchase four truck and six portable high band radios.

According to David Aldrighetti, who is one of two assistant fire chiefs, Bethel is the only town in at least a 50-mile radius that is still using short band radios. This means they are unable to communicate directly with any other fire department, or even with WRVA. As a result, they lose precious time having to patch calls through to dispatch when requiring interagency communication. In addition, many non-emergency services such as school busses and town trucks now use the short band frequency, causing a lot of constant noise on the line.

According to Aldrighetti, this is a real problem. Since the firefighters, as well as dispatch, need to leave the short band radios on all the time in order to be effective, they are bombarded with a constant stream of conversation that is unrelated to emergency work. He said that the noise is sometimes so distracting that dispatch turns the radios low, or in one instance when it was particularly bad, off. This seriously impacts Bethel’s ability to react to emergencies in a timely manner.

With the new radios, the Bethel Fire Dept. will increase its ability to communicate with emergency workers around the country. However, as Aldrighetti informed the selectboard at its January 14 meeting, the radios purchased with the FEMA grant will be only one piece of what Bethel needs in order to fully communicate with other emergency personnel.

In reality, each firefighter and vehicle should have a radio, which would require over 30. To be fully effective, they need a base station and a repeater station to ensure that the signal can be received all over town. In addition, each firefighter would need a new pager that was compatible with the system.

Aldrighetti, co-assistant chief Scott Taylor, and communications expert Dick Hill of Wells Communications explained the need to the Bethel Selectboard and informed them that an estimated cost for the entire system, including enough radios for all vehicles and half of the fire fighters, would be somewhat over $37,000.

Aldrighetti was quick to point out that, as a taxpayer, he feels the financial pinch and is trying to keep costs down. The department has applied for an additional grant that could bring the remaining need down to $21,641, and possibly less. Some of the expense would be offset by the fact that the current, antiquated system requires constant repairs as well as a dedicated phone line that cost the town approximately $4,000 per year.

Aldrighetti emphasized that, according to law, all fire departments in the state must have this high band system in place by January 1, 2013. He further pointed out that for years Fire Chief Bob Dean has kept the department budget to a bare minimum.

Dean, who has been chief or assistant chief for 48 of his 50 years on the squad, concurred, saying that he has "tried to keep the budget around $25-30,000 while other towns get $75-80,000." Both Dean and Aldrighetti point out that firefighting has changed over the years.

Dean notes that "there are less fires now" while Aldrighetti recognizes that they "now get called for all sorts of emergencies." Both are quick to mention the increase in fire fighting technology that adds to both efficiency and safety for the fire fighters, and both agree that there is a big need for new, improved communications equipment in Bethel.

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