Bucks County commissioners lend money for digital radios - Communications will improve for 104 fire, police and ambulance squads. - 02/17/00 - By HAL MARCOVITZ Of The Morning Call
Police, fire and ambulance units in Upper Bucks received loans Wednesday from the Bucks County commissioners to help them pay for the digital radios required for emergency communications.
The commissioners bought the radios for 104 departments in Bucks County with $6.5 million drawn out of a bond issue last year with the understanding that the money would be paid back either through cash payments or loans.
Brenton T. Wiggins, director of communications for the county government, said 89 of the 104 departments chose to repay the county through loans with terms as long as seven years.
In Upper Bucks, 23 departments chose to take out loans to obtain the radios while two units -- Trumbauersville Fire Company and Tinicum Township Police Department -- elected to pay for their radios immediately. Tinicum police paid $33,000 to the county; Trumbauersville Fire Department paid $46,800. Stanley Allen, county finance director, said the police, fire and ambulance squads will be charged 4 percent interest for the terms of their loans, which represents a break for the local emergency services providers. He said the county is paying an interest rate of 4.5 percent on the bond issue.
Police departments in Bucks County were switched to digital communications in January. Wiggins said about half the fire and ambulance units have been switched, with the rest slated to go onto the new system by early March.
The radios were purchased from Motorola. Technicians in the communications department have spent several months programming them to accept a digital signal from the county dispatching center in Doylestown.
''We have just about delivered all the radios that have been ordered,'' Wiggins said. The digital radios replace the analog radios that the police, fire and ambulance units have been using for decades. Digital signals are supposed to eliminate dead spots -- areas of the county behind hills, for example -- where the analog signal doesn't reach.
The digital signal also will enable police to talk directly to fire and ambulance crews. Under the analog system, a call from a police officer to a fire or ambulance unit had to be patched through the county communications department.
Police departments in Upper Bucks granted loans by the commissioners include Bedminster, $33,800; Dublin, $77,700; Hilltown, $94,600; Pennridge, $30,100; Perkasie, $64,800; Quakertown, $30,700; and Springfield, $24,800.
Fire departments accepting county loans included Dublin, $77,700; Haycock, $28,800; Hilltown, $47,900; Milford, $62,500; Ottsville, $42,400; Perkasie, $112,900; Quakertown, $98,800; Richlandtown, $57,500; Sellersville, $92,500; Shelly, $64,400; Silverdale, $41,500; and Springtown, $43,100.
Ambulance units receiving loans were Grand View Medical, $47,800; Life Star, $69,800; Perkasie Community, $11,800; and Riegelsville-Palisades, $29,700.