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Council discusses phone lines, faxes and radio coverage as part of budget review
Summary
Cumberland councilors questioned recurring phone, fax and cellular bills and heard staff describe transitions to VoIP, copper backup lines for redundancy and an active effort to co‑locate radio and cellular antennas to eliminate coverage gaps on the west side of town.
During the budget workshop councilors asked for detail on telephone, fax and cellular costs and for the town’s plan to improve radio coverage and cellular service in coverage gaps.
Helene, finance staff, and Matt explained the town switched voice service from a legacy vendor to a new voice‑over‑IP provider (ION) to avoid repeated per‑change fees from the prior vendor. They said the town still maintains copper backup lines at key facilities — notably the fire station — because some alarms, elevator lines and fire‑panel communications still require copper and because copper provides a fallback if municipal Internet is unavailable.
Madam Chair Douglas and other councilors pressed whether fax lines could be eliminated and whether the copper backups remain necessary. Helene said some services — alarm panels, elevator lines and certain public‑safety functions — still require copper; she suggested some alarm panels could be converted to wireless radio in future upgrades.
Councilors also raised widely varying monthly cell and Verizon bills and asked why some months showed large single‑month spikes. Helene explained some spikes reflect device purchases through the carrier (for example, purchasing an iPad with service for vehicle use), and that the fire department moved some in‑vehicle computing from expensive “Toughbook” laptops to iPads to reduce hardware expense while keeping cellular service on vehicle devices.
Radio coverage and tower plans: Matt and public‑safety chiefs described a multi‑year effort to improve radio and cellular coverage. Staff said the town is exploring co‑location on existing towers, working with neighboring communities and pursuing one or more new tower co‑location opportunities (Shoebeeck, a proposed Mountain Road tower and a potential new tower under discussion). Staff characterized the schedule as aiming for site agreements and co‑locations within roughly a year, subject to permitting, lease negotiations and potential grant support; prior budgets and a grant have partially funded early engineering work.
Councilors asked for continued clarity on recurring monthly costs and asked that staff post the vendor and device breakdown for cell and data accounts in the budget Q&A so the council can compare recurring service versus one‑time equipment purchases.
Ending: staff will provide a more detailed line‑by‑line explanation of phone, fax and cellular charges and continue work on tower co‑location and grant options; councilors asked for updates at upcoming budget meetings.
