Up until this point, the Milford Area Communications Center or MACC base, has been absorbing 71% of the cost of a dated emergency system, with “dead spots” — areas where emergency radio systems fail — all the while serving the towns of Wilton and Mont Vernon.

Warrant Article 4, which is on the Tuesday’s ballot for the town of Milford voters, calls for “the Milford emergency communications dispatch center infrastructure and equipment project — with a capital cost of $2.4 million.”

Capt. Frye said with Milford’s growth, it’s essential that the town have its own Milford-only dispatch center at the Milford Police Department. But he wanted to stipulate that is the only matter that is on Article 4.

“The first thing that I’d like to clarify is the First Net AT&T tower,” said Frye. “It’s a federal project to keep a data band going — this doesn’t replace dispatchers. It’s just strictly data and that’s it.”

Frye said putting a tower in the back of Milford police station was discussed and is still in the negotiation phase.

“It would be nice if it was put here by AT&T,” Frye said, “for obvious reasons. There could be revenue off of it, generated from it, and we would only have to put a microwave dish on that, to be able to talk within the town.”

A VHF P25 conventional radio system is proposed in Article 4, as best fit for Milford. A central tower located at MPD will provide 95% coverage for Milford.

“Taking the AT&T tower out of the picture, it doesn’t effect Article 4 at all,” Frye said. “It’s basically a revenue source. They would put the antenna in. Everything would be for free for the town of Milford. We could put our equipment on there for free. They would do all the groundwork for free, but saying that, the $2.4 million has a 100 foot antenna to replace our existing antenna to talk to the Summer Street tower.”

Frye said that people “keep throwing that in the mix,” suggesting that the MPD has two projects going on.

“We sort of do, but we sort of don’t,” Frye stated. “The AT&T tower is a project on its own that hasn’t even got past the zoning board yet. So, we’re still in talks and they’re trying to figure out the language in legal. So, as far as [Wilton] is concerned, that should answer that question.”

Eric Schelberg added, “the First Net does not impact communications as Capt. Frye was saying. It does not impact our ability to communicate or not to communicate. It just provides another, and possibly better opportunity for antenna placement that will affect communications. First Net has nothing to do with this warrant article, be it 4 or 5. It has everything to do with a separate project not related to this.”

Kermit Williams, state representative (D-Wilton), spoke to the Cabinet on Feb. 20, saying “If Milford pulls away, that would make Milford Area Communications Center (MACC) base pulls out, that would make it financially unworkable for us.”

“Milford pays 71% of the bill for all the towns,” said Frye, speaking of Milford, Wilton and Mont Vernon. “They’re saying that we’re not playing fair, since I’ve been a captain, five years. And prior to that, we’ve been saying that this is probably going to happen. We’ve tried to help Wilton acknowledge the fact that we’re going to do this and we’ve set plans out. We’ve taken the horse and we’re going to go with it.”

It’s not clear now, if Wilton understands that this is not a remote possibility but a probability that Milford will go on its own out of necessity, not indifference.

“I guess they didn’t believe us,” Frye said. “This has been coming for five years and they haven’t done anything to help themselves. They’ve expected it to fail because it’s been presented for years, that Milford is going to pull out and it’s going to affect Wilton. They haven’t done anything to help themselves.”

Frye said he took offense with Williams comment in the Feb. 20, where he stated, “They’d like to have something they have more control over, so they’re pushing it.”

“In reality, we don’t want to be controlling,” said Frye. “We want to fix it. But at 71%, we kind of should be controlling.”

Chief Viola said the town of Milford has been transparent.

“In the past couple of years, everybody who has been involved in this process, all the other towns, that there needs to be an overhaul of the whole system. So, we’re at that point where the decision has to be made as to which way to take it.”

Viola said the departments head of Milford feel that Article 4 is the best option that Milford has.

“We also wanted to clear up the fact, that we’re talking about all the department,” said Viola. “It’s not the police department. It’s all the department heads of the emergency services of this town. We’re not saying we don’t want to help other towns, because we all care about what happens to all the emergency services. But this is a discussion that has gone on for several years, to the point that three years ago, we had a meeting with all the board of selectmen at the town hall, and it was brought up that it was our problem.”

Frye added that the $2.4 million will allow the town to have partners, including Wilton, if they’re willing to update their infrastructure.

“That’s where you start pulling at the heart strings of the people who have been here for thirty years,” said Frye. “And Milford has been taking care of them by footing the bill.”

The issue is that Milford has grown into a much bigger town; in 1984, there were only 8,000 people.

“I don’t know what the 2020 census is going to say,” Frye continued. “But I’d put us at 17,000, or 18,000 people. I’d put us up there.”

Riendeau added that four miles of subdivision road will be added this year.

“We all patrol the same roads,” said Frye. “But we’ve grown immensely. And if you look at the population of Wilton, they haven’t grown that much.”

Wilton’s issue will be to build their own infrastructure, which will communicate with Milford.

“It behooves them not to do it,” said Frye. “‘Let’s ask Hollis if they’ll dispatch for us,’ for example. That’s where the struggle is. Yeah, it’s expensive. But CTA went above and beyond the scope of what Milford taxpayer wanted last year when we approved the $85K for the study.”

Specifically, last year, CTA Consultants of Lynchburg, Virginia, conducted an in-depth feasibility study and their recommendation was that Milford have a Milford-only dispatch solution.

“They talked to the users of the system, not the select people,” said Frye. “They talked to the fire department, the police department, basically the users of system and they compiled this report based on the actual people who are out there on the street.”

Frye said the problem of picking up a radio and finding that you’re in a “dead spot,” is dangerous for emergency personnel and for that particular person or persons in distress.

“We’re here to make sure out people stay safe,” Frye stated. “And when they pick up the radio, with a dead spot issue, we need to know that someone is listening. And we’re able to hear.”

Frye said the police officers on patrol could be anywhere in town, where the fire department is dispatched to a scene.

“The fire department goes from point A to point B,” explained Frye. “We might be going to points C, D, and E. Eric goes where they need medics. It’s a lot. It gets a little difficult, especially in dead spots on the police department side.”

There are situations, said Frye, where dispatchers are unable to hear police officers on their portable radios; they can’t hear officers on the car radio, and eventually officers are forced to use their cell phones to communicate.

“Cellphones have become the back-up,” Frye said. “In the ultimate emergency situation, I don’t know what would happen. My cell phone sits in the coffee cup holder. It’s not in my pocket. It’s not attached to my uniform. It sits in the car and if something really bad happens, and you’re on your portable asking for help and they can’t understand you, and you can’t get back to the car, you’re on your own.”

Flaherty said that added “repeaters” have been added to the fire departments radio system and still works, but the Viola explained that was something that the fire department took upon itself to fix.

“Take MACC base, and we’re paying 71%, and then take Kenny who has a radio problem and the fire department pays the extra money to fix that problem,” said Viola. “I don’t like what we’re looking at now for infrastructure, as we’re looking to move forward, we’re saying, ‘this thing needs to be fixed. If you want to come along, fix your own infrastructures so it will work for you.”

Viola said Milford will have to take care of Milford. And it Wilton wants to be a part of it, they’ll have to fix their infrastructure as well.

“We’re not having an issue with staff,” Viola said. “We’ve never said that. We have an issue with the overall equipment. We feel that if it continues going like it is, we’re going to continue to have a problem.”

As for Article 5, a letter date Jan. 31, 2020, from the chiefs and directors of Milford emergency services was sent to the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Advisory Committee.

It states, “Reference: Warrant Article 5.”

“We are taking this time to provide a point of view about Article 5 and why this should not be supported by any member of the two boards. This point of view is supported by the command staff of the Milford Police, Fire, Ambulance and DPW services.”

“The reasons why Article 5 should not be supported by the two boards is that it represents everything that you wanted to change from last year’s presented article warrant for communications. Article 5 is a sole source vendor, has an estimated cost that did not follow any guidelines as to an RFP. Article 5 has never been approved by the BOG at MACC Base and no plan has ever been shown to the BOS or the BAC as to how this money would be spent to cover some of the upgrades but not all of them like Article 4 represents. Article 5 represents an estimated cost with no merit”.