Putnam County radio system online; additional towers and fail‑safe measures coming

Putnam County emergency‑communications staff told the Protective Services Committee on Sept. 18 that the new countywide trunked radio system is in everyday operation for fire, EMS and law‑enforcement agencies and that officials are installing additional towers and redundancy measures to improve coverage.

Director Lannon (Bureau of Emergency Services) said the system has about 4,470 radios registered and that peak use of the trunked channels had reached only 12 percent during the heaviest load periods, leaving significant capacity for incident traffic. “The peak that we've had of usage on our system is 12%,” he told the committee.

Three towers remain to be completed: an installation at Piano Mountain, a Nelsonville (Philipstown) site and a longer‑lead project at Airport Park. The Nelsonville site and Piano Mountain were described as imminently approaching buildout; Airport Park will require additional permitting and site work, officials said.

Officials described several resilience steps already under way. A second “core” (duplicate master controller equipment) has been ordered and will be installed to provide near‑instant failover if primary infrastructure fails. Staff also described a fall‑back or analog mode that preserves point‑to‑point radio traffic should a catastrophic failure occur, and the county has a documented contingency for dispatch and unit accountability in such a scenario.

The county will roll out a Motorola “SmartConnect” feature allowing radios to use commercial data/Wi‑Fi when trunk coverage is unavailable; the feature will help ensure officers retain voice connectivity where cellular service is present. Officials also reported expanding the system to non‑public‑safety users: social‑services field staff were provided radios and used the devices during a recent lobby incident.

Committee members asked about school coverage and building‑interior gaps. Officials said some large buildings still require in‑building bidirectional amplifiers (BDAs) and that schools should be addressed in a phased program tied to budget and grant funding. Staff said they will continue outreach with municipal building departments and school districts on BDA installations and building testing.

Officials said the vendor and county will continue acceptance testing and that grants have covered a substantial portion of the system’s cost to date. The committee thanked staff for the update and requested periodic briefings as the remaining towers and redundancy hardware come online.