Phone issues continue to plague city police and fire departments

The problem, which dates as far back as July, finally reared its ugly head again last Friday at 3:30 a.m. when 911 dispatchers and emergency service phone lines were unable to accept a call concerning a fire at the Saratoga Hotel, due to a power outage and the failure of City Hall’s back-up generator to come on.

Kim commended the actions of Saratoga Springs Police Lt. Linda Quattrini, who made calls from her personal cell phone to try to ensure that 911 had received the emergency, in order for them to relay the message to local fire officials. He explained how she used quick thinking when she was unable to get through by means of a cell phone to pull police cars in front of the building, where the only radios were working, in order to communicate with dispatchers and rescue workers.

“No police department or fire department should be put into that situation,” Kim said during his address to the council.

The city’s risk and safety manager, Marilyn Rivers, addressed the telecommunications and generator problem, saying that a five dollar piece of plexiglass had obstructed the generator from working properly and that the problem has since been corrected. She also talked of a need for the city to install a battery backup system in order to insure that this issue does not present itself in the future.

The three previous phone line failures were twice caused by power outages and once from when an officer accidentally kicked the power plug out of the wall with the heel of their foot.

“It’s important to inform the public,” Kim said. “We are an open government and people need to know what’s going on.”

Scirocco dealing with salt shortage

Another pertinent issue came up in Commissioner Scirocco’s agenda, when he discussed the concern over road salt for winter maintenance.

He said that Saratoga’s DPW is just one of many in the area that is facing problems concerning a lack of road salt.

Saratoga Springs itself has 145 miles of roadway, and it takes 150 tons of salt to de-ice the city’s roadways. Scirocco explained how workers have to treat a two inch storm like it’s a foot.

For now, the town is mixing salt with sand in order to increase supplies.

The city received 37 tons of salt from the county on Tuesday, and the Department of Commerce has told city officials that they could supply them with 40 tons of salt by Thursday if they needed it.

Right now workers are focusing on hills, intersections and main roads. Last year the town used 2,080 tons of salt between November of ‘06 to March of ‘07. This year, in the same time period, the city has used 3,850 tons of salt on roadways.

“We are at a critical time,” Scirocco said. “We are praying for good weather and we are going to get through it.”