Ask $2 Million For Emergency Equipment

East Hampton Town and Village, and the town's several fire districts, are considering spending more than $2 million for a new emergency communications system that would put them, technologically speaking, on a par with the rest of Suffolk County.

At least it would put them on the same wave length - enabling police, fire, and ambulance personnel to talk directly to each other townwide, rather than through a dispatcher as they do now, as well as countywide in the event of a catastrophe.

"We had just fired up the county system before the disaster of Flight 800," Thomas Potter, the manufacturer's representative, told the East Hampton Village Board last week. "At least everyone could talk to everyone."

"Dead Zones" Come Alive

The "800 Megahertz Smartnet" radio trunk system, as it is called, manufactured by Motorola, would replace existing equipment. Some of it is 18 years old, including more than 175 portable and mobile radios in the town and another 100 in East Hampton Village.

The computer-based radio network would connect police, fire, ambulance, highway, parks, and sanitation personnel, and others when necessary - say, during a severe hurricane. Proponents say it would form the basis for a complete East End radio system should Peconic County become a reality.

On a daily basis, the new technology would eliminate "dead zones" in parts of Springs, Northwest, and on Napeague, where firefighters' and emergency medical technicians' two-way radios often fail, requiring them to use a cellular phone or return to their vehicles to call the dispatch center.

Cellular Reliability

Cell phones may not always be reliable, cautioned Nat Raynor, the town's communications director, who has worked on the proposal for a year.

Many do not understand, he said, that every cell phone on the South Fork is linked by fiberoptic cable to a central control office in Woodbury. "If a storm knocks the cable lines out of commission - no cell phones."

The communications system proposal has touched a raw nerve here, reviving thoughts of money the county has collected in a monthly per-telephone 35-cent surcharge for "enhanced 911" emergency dispatch service.

The county has returned some of the E-911 surcharge funds to East Hampton in the form of a new computer, caller identification, and recording equipment now being installed at town police headquarters and at the Village Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street.

Where Money Goes

Most of the money, though, is thought to have gone to pay more than 70 county police dispatchers who handle calls exclusively in western Suffolk. Critics say the surcharge on East Enders pays for services in the west that they do not use,while their taxes go to dispatch services here. If the surcharge money were returned here, some say, it might lower taxes.

"We were promised last spring that this would not happen," Town Supervisor Cathy Lester said this week. She said she was "setting up a meeting about this" with County Executive Robert J. Gaffney.

Revenue-Sharing

Ms. Lester, who is running for re-election, also criticized the Republican County Executive for deleting $200,000 in revenue-sharing fromEast Hampton Town in his 1998 county budget proposal.

"We think this is because of our interest in Peconic County," she said. East Hampton has been in the forefront of the effort to secede from Suffolk County.

The county began installing its emergency communications system, at a cost of about $13 million, in 1993. Vincent Stile, director of police radio communications, said the network now covers the County Police Department, the county sheriff's and District Attorney's offices, bus services, and parks police.

New Antennas

Mr. Stile denied a report that county equipment in Southampton was going to be moved in the spring to Huntington, where service is considered inadequate. East Hampton officials had expressed concern that such a move would endanger South Fork ambulance companies' communications with Stony Brook University Medical Center.

Three antenna sites, but no new towers, would serve the new East Hampton network: at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street (the "prime site"), the tower at the Montauk transfer station off Montauk Highway, and a remote site for the western part of town in the AT&T tower in Noyac.

Ms. Lester just this week signed a contract with AT&T for that space, agreeing to pay an $8,750 one-time fee, plus $1,282 a year for five years.

Exclusive Channels

The system will operate over five "exclusive" channels the Federal Communications Commission has licensed to East Hampton. Some observers have expressed reservations that the police, for the first time, would have a channel inaccessible by scanner.

Ms. Lester defended the Police Department's "privacy needs" in surveillance situations where the element of surprise would be helpful. She said she saw "no down side" to confidentiality if, for example, it meant that a drug task force officer's conversation could not be overheard.

The East Hampton Town Board will consider the communications proposal next month. The $1.7 million or so cost would be a capital expense; the town would have to borrow to cover it.

Cost To Village

The East Hampton Village Board reviewed the plan last week at a work session. The various fire districts have been learning about it over the past several weeks.

The village's cost, about $348,000 - "a lot of money," acknowledged Larry Cantwell, the Village Administrator - might, if approved, become part of its $8 million operating budget. The village spent about $250,000 only seven years ago on a communications equipment upgrade, Mr. Cantwell said.

"We would not have considered this for the village if the town weren't doing it," he added, noting that police, fire, and ambulance personnel "can communicate adequately" throughout the village's 16 square miles.

Fire Districts

The village receives roughly $220,000 under contracts for dispatch service from the fire districts of Amagansett, Bridgehampton, Montauk, Sag Harbor, Springs, and the Sag Harbor Village Police.

Additionally, the village has asked the fire districts to contribute, proportionately, their share toward the upgrade of the village dispatch center, as follows: Amagansett, $10,000, Bridgehampton, $17,000, East Hampton Village fire and ambulance, $32,000, Montauk, $15,000, Sag Harbor, $17,000, Springs, $9,000.

Sag Harbor's Mayor Pierce Hance this week said he was awaiting final figures before deciding about the expenditure. Supervisor Lester said all the other fire districts had indicated their support.