Delay will save Shelter Island Fire District dollars
Commissioner Larry Lechmanski explains how the district’s costs to upgrade communications equipment has dropped sharply thanks to delays.
One man’s misery can be another man’s gain.
That’s the story for Fire Commissioners who learned that problems plaguing the Southold Fire District benefit Shelter Island by slowing down the conversion from low to high band communications.
More delays than expected will enable the Island district to purchase equipment at far less than it originally expected, according to Commissioner Larry Lechmanski.
Because of an error in paperwork between Southold and Noyac, Southold has been told it must remove repeaters it has on a Noyac tower.
Now Southold and the other departments that depend on Southold dispatching services must look for the best way to meet communications needs. That will cost each of the departments that depend on the dispatching services $500 to fund the exploration of where to best locate a tower on the North Fork that would improve communications for all.
This delay, along with others that have occurred on county and local levels have kept Shelter Island commissioners from beginning to invest what could have cost as much as $350,000 to upgrade equipment.
By proceeding cautiously until they could determine the exact right course to follow in upgrading communications equipment, the commissioners have arrived at a point where they expect their upgrades to cost between $28,645 and $38,645. The $10,000 difference represents a savings to be realized if Elite Towers puts up a tower here, allowing the district antenna to be placed without a fee.
But the real overall savings comes from additional equipment manufacturers entering the field to compete with Motorola, the prime company for top quality communications equipment, Mr. Lechmanski said.
“It’s all good news for us,” he said, pointing out there are several companies that have re-entered the field and their prices are much lower.
He also said that while he and others have been attending meetings at the county level and with North Fork fire departments, earlier information they were given proved to be incorrect, so it paid not to act sooner.
Handheld radio units that would have cost $4,000 each are now down to $1,965. “We’re going to reap the benefit of that,” he said.
Commissioners approved a $1,500 expenditure for the district to obtain a frequency it will eventually need with the new equipment. With frequencies being purchased at a clip by other emergency responders, it was important for Shelter Island to move now to lock in a frequency before they are exhausted, Mr. Lechmanski said.
