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Washington County approves hires, previews communications upgrades and reviews Whitehall water response
Summary
County public-safety committees on Jan. 28 accepted multiple grants and program updates, approved temporary staffing hires in the communications center, heard that a pretrial services DCJS grant was recognized and discussed the county's response to the Whitehall water outage and planned state-supplied emergency equipment.
Washington County's public-safety and emergency-management officials on Jan. 28 moved to shore up dispatch staffing, reviewed multiple grants for pretrial services and opioid-response initiatives, and received a post-incident briefing on the December Whitehall water outage that county staff said will inform future preparedness steps.
Lede: The county approved early hiring to create an overlap for training in its 9-1-1 communications center after two employees announced departures; officials said training a new communications officer takes about four months and that staffing gaps pose operational risk. The committee voted to allow managers to hire an additional full-time trainee before a scheduled retirement so that a month or more of overlap can occur during training.
Nut graf: County staff described ongoing grant-funded programs — a $97,645 pretrial-services award from the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), opioid-settlement spending to support a pre-arrest diversion effort, and an opioid-funded responder-health program launching in February — and said these funds underpin expanded programs for treatment and responder wellness. County emergency-management and communications staff also described multi-year federal and state grants used to upgrade public-safety radio, microwave and tower infrastructure and identified planned equipment that the state will supply under a recent flood-mitigation program.
Staffing and training: Communications staff told the committee two longtime employees — a communications officer and a fire investigator — are leaving and emphasized the operational difficulty of training new hires. The committee approved a motion to allow hiring that creates overlap so a new trainee can complete the roughly four-month intensive training program before an incumbent departs, a step intended to reduce overtime pressure and burnout.
Grants and programs: The committee recognized a DCJS pretrial-services award of $97,645, which staff said will mostly offset personnel costs and pay for training materials and participant supports. Separately, staff reported the county's pre-arrest diversion program tied to opioid‑settlement funds is now ready to receive participants; staff said training and policy development are complete and overtime will be needed as cases arise. A responder-health program funded from opioid-settlement dollars is scheduled to kick off Feb. 6, with an afternoon session for county employees and an evening session open to volunteer fire and EMS agencies.
Communications and towers: County communications and emergency-management staff reviewed a series of federal and state grants that over recent years have paid for public-safety communications upgrades — replacement of microwave links, radio console and recorder upgrades, additional towers and portable radios, and a PSAP (dispatch center) back-up site. Staff said a targeted grant of approximately $2.9 million will support a large additional communications upgrade; they said, collectively, communications grant work since 2018 represents roughly $13 million in improvements to dispatch and radio infrastructure. Staff discussed plans for repeaters at four local schools (identified as Fort Edward, Whitehall, Granville and Salem in committee remarks) and ongoing work to upgrade the Black Mountain site (state‑owned) to improve coverage in northern and lakeshore areas.
Whitehall water outage recap: Emergency-management staff briefed the committee on the December incident in the Village of Whitehall in which the village's gravity‑fed supply from Pine Lake dropped significantly and residents lost drinking water for several days. Staff described multi-agency response: county DPW and neighboring towns supplied equipment and personnel; volunteer fire departments delivered bottled water and assisted vulnerable residents; the county coordinated temporary sheltering and distribution. Staff also reported difficulties getting some state-supplied tankers certified for drinking water use by the Department of Health, which complicated distribution; speakers said the experience highlighted the need to plan for water distribution, power for restroom trailers and other logistics in winter conditions.
State equipment and preparedness: County emergency-management staff said the state has a procurement in progress to supply counties with pumps, light towers, VMS message boards, sandbags and generators for flood and water-response work; those assets will be managed locally but may be redeployed by the state if needed elsewhere. The committee was also notified of an NYSAC emergency-management training event for chief elected officials on Feb. 26.
What’s next: Staff will proceed with hiring plans approved by the committee to ensure overlap in dispatcher training, move grant recognitions and budget items to finance where required, and continue implementing communications upgrades and a public-safety equipment plan tied to state procurement.
