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Fire services go live with new radio and paging systems
NEWS
By LAURA ARMSTRONG larmstrong@perfprint.ca
There is a fundraising effort happening March 22 to help victims of domestic violence. Page 3
COMMUNITY
There is a new focus on class that has been offered at the University of Guelph’s Kemptville campus. Page K1
SPORTS
Photo by JOSEPH MORIN
All for a good cause Kemptville 73’s have tough time on the road. Page K17
Community - The Tim Hortons Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kids’ Sake took place on Saturday, Feb. 22. There was bowling in Kemptville, Brockville and in Elgin. More than $42,000 was raised from all three locations. In Kemptville one of the bowling teams was the CSE Consulting Kingpins. The group, along with several others at Kemptville Bowling, raised $5,565 from the Kemptville area alone. Left to right, back row are: Kaitlyn Allingham, Yvonne Couperus, Joshua Couperus, Front row: Hanna Silmser along with the team’s mascot Raffi, Jennifer Gow and Tracy McDonald.
News — The North Grenville Fire Services have gone live with new radio and paging systems since the new year, as part of a lengthy communications-update project. Director of Emergency and Protective Services and Fire Chief Paul Hutt updated the North Grenville Municipal Council about the changes to the local fire services methods as part of a regular council meeting Monday, Feb. 24. Hutt told council a countywide radio system went live Jan. 22 and numerical pagers were handed out to volunteer firefighters Feb. 12. “This is a project that’s been in the works for close to five years, so well overdue, but I’m extremely pleased to offer this update,” said Hutt. The radio system was anticipated to provide 95 per cent coverage across the counties, said Hutt. Since it went live a little more than a month ago, Hutt said in actual fact the results show the fire services are benefiting from 98 per cent coverage. “With this portable, now, I can talk from North Grenville right to Leeds and the Thousand Islands. That’s exactly what we stepped out to do and we’re very happy to report that is the actual fact with the testing we’ve done,” Hutt said. Another successful aspect of the radio system, Hutt said, is better interoperability. “Now, certainly within the counties, with all the fire services and all the agencies, we can talk seamlessly with each other, not talking over each other.” There are no dead spots in North Grenville, Hutt said. The improved system, said Hutt, allows the North Grenville Fire Services to communicate with all their neighbours. The local fire service is already able to communicate directly with areas such as North Dundas and the City of Ottawa through a patch-
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“This is a project that’s been in the works for close to five years... I’m pleased to offer this update.” FIRE CHIEF PAUL HUTT
“It actually goes outside the counties, so if you’re in Ottawa or Kingston you’ll still receive pages. It’s excellent with our system. With the volunteers coming in, they can receive updates so if we need additional resources they’re able to receive the pages and if we get a cancellation they’re able to receive those.” Mayor David Gordon commended Hutt on his role in implementing the new systems. “I see you’re modest once again, you’re underplaying your involvement in the radios,” said Gordon. “It think it’s money well spent.” Both the radio and paging systems were a huge undertaking by the counties, Hutt said, but both projects are seeing overwhelming success. “Not only does it improve radio communication for fire services, it certainly does improve the fire safety of our firefighters that we have on the fire scene.”
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ing system. “When the counties, as well as the municipality, opted into the P25 interoperability software, that was the full intention, that we could have communication with all our partners as well.” The North Grenville Fire Services also adopted numerical pagers instead of voice-activated pagers as of Feb. 12. Hutt said the new pagers are in time with text messaging. “It’s a text pager that offers our updates on our pager.” The coverage offered by the pagers, Hutt said, exceeds the fire services footprint within the county.
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