N. Westchester County Updated Info

[Skooter92]

If anyone is listening to Northern Westchester County these days, North Salem VAC's VHF dispatch frequency of 151.535 PL110.9 is now crossbanded to 452.875 same PL. The UHF is actually repeated with a +5mHz input off our tower; this was done with an eye towards moving all of our radios to UHF. The link repeats on UHF, but bridges to our simplex 151.535 to ensure that folks with VHF equipment can still use the channel. In addition to NSVAC, LVAC, and the Northern Westchester medics, Mt. Kisco VAC will be moving their dispatch to 151.535 in the very near future. Any reception reports on the UHF side would be welcomed.

[hockeyshrink]

Who does your dispatching?

Why aren't you on the County system?

[izzyj4]

I was going to ask also why not switch over to the county trunk system?

[hockeyshrink]

This county would save many millions of dollars, improve administration and management, and increase operational effectiveness by consolidating all these rinky-dink police, fire, and "ambulance corps" groups into county-wide departments. Why does the Town of Mount Pleasant need its own little police department, 4 different fire departments (not stations), and god knows how many different ambulance corps? It's just nuts, but it is all political. Just getting fire and ems all over the county to agree to be coordinated by 60 Control seems to be a unsurmountable challenge.

Disclaimer: this is all IMHO
I have NO affiliation with any county, town, village, hamlet, fort, camp, or tribe organization

[DaveNF2G]

Welcome to "Home Rule." The Empire State is full of little empires that can do whatever they want because the state's constitution says so.

[Spec]

Westchester County has always had the "Empire" mentality. It has existed for more years than I am old. That's more years than I care to think about. Breaking the mold is not an easy task. I believe with the new county fire network it may be a start, however don't expect miracles.

[radioman2001]

If any of you are old enough to remember the disaster in getting 911 in Westchester County and the formation of 60 control,( prior was just a few co-ordinators located in a small office on the second floor of Westchester County Parkway Police headquarters, that came around and asked you what resources you needed at a big fire) then you might begin to understand the politics of it. There is some hope of a consolidated emergency systems because of the economic crisis. I understand there are a few departments (FD) in the south county consolidating there purchasing power with the county in an attempt to lower some of their costs. I believe it would take an act of legislation to combine all the Fire and EMS departments. The Police will probably try and fight it for many additional years. What is needed is what Rudy Guliany did in NYC, just legislate it and tell them, see you in court 30 years from now. I didn't approve of it, since it affected my working in the EMS system, but it definitly combined duplicate services and streamlined a lot of others, thus supposedly lowing taxes. Maybe?
BTW Why are you picking on my hometown PD (Mt Pleasant)?

[hockeyshrink]

Thanks for your replies to my semi-rant. I get it, now. The politics and power around here are deeply rooted, and I had not considered the "Empire State" ethos.

I guess the only "burning platform" that would drive consolidation of public safety services in the county is the threat of extinction due to economic issues. It's a shame. I think there could be much improvement in the management and delivery of services, as well as a huge financial windfall. Just the savings from economies of scale in vendor contracts and service level agreements would be huge!

No, I am not from here. I am from Virginia where counties went through this transition many years ago. I was a firefighter/EMT in Henrico County, just north of Richmond (circa early 80's), and one of my assignments was a rural station that still had some volunteers. I heard many horror stories about the old days...about worn out equipment, lack of training, and poor communication and coordination with adjacent "departments." It is very clear that the citizens of the county were the clear winners when the independent fire departments were consolidated into a county department. PD had consolidated a long long time before, and we were pulling EMS into the fold.

I am not "picking" on TMP, lol...I live here too and I'm happy with the quality of our public servants; however, I think they would also benefit greatly from being part of a county-wide organization.

OK, I'm done, semi-rant off. It makes no difference to me and I have no skin in this whatsoever.

I have not heard NSVAC on UHF yet.

Cool signature, Spec...how appropriate for this day and age in America