(MINEOLA, N.Y.) – Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D – Glen Cove) applauded the unanimous approval of purchase orders that will enable the completion of more than $626,000 in important upgrades to the County’s fire communication dispatching framework and software.
Authorized by the Legislature’s Rules committee on Monday, Oct. 7, one $385,664.20 purchase order covers “voting” equipment, diagramming, and installation services necessary to repair and upgrade Firecomm’s adtran operating system. Firecomm’s network has multiple antennas at its disposal, and the “voter” equipment identifies the strongest signal and uses that path for more efficient and prompt communications, officials told the Rules committee in testimony. Firecomm’s radio systems suffered outages in February that forced first responders onto a backup system.
In related action on Monday, the Rules committee approved an additional $240,737.08 with Eastern Communications to update Firecomm’s second Fieldcom unit to upgrade remote dispatch capabilities in the event that the County’s brick and mortar facilities are not available, especially in the event of a disaster.
Chief Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro told the Rules committee that Monday’s actions are a step toward fully transitioning to a state-of-the-art fiberoptics framework that ensures Nassau’s first responders are operating seamlessly on a modern, integrated communications framework.
“Nassau County’s volunteer firefighters rush toward danger to protect their neighbors on a daily basis, and the radio outage that occurred this winter served as a stark reminder that we must always be vigilant in ensuring that our first responders are always well equipped to serve and protect the public,” Minority Leader DeRiggi-Whitton said. “I was proud to support these investments in communications technology that will help our frontline heroes work even more efficiently and keep themselves safe as they respond to emergencies.”
PHOTO CAPTION – Minority Leader DeRiggi-Whitton, pictured at a February 2024 meeting with Glen Cove FD ex-Chief Dave Spy and Chief Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro, at a February 2024 meeting following an outage that impacted Firecomm radio communications.
PHOTO CREDIT – Office of Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (archive)