John Penney
The Day, New London, Conn.
(TNS)

New London — During a shift earlier this week at the North Fire Station on Broad Street, the antiquated and overworked window-unit air conditioners inside a set of upper rooms finally quit — as the mercury neared 100 degrees on the hottest day of the year so far.

“It was hotter inside than outside,” Lt. Steven Jolly said Friday.

But relief is on the way thanks to $417,000 worth of state-supplied Local Capital Improvement Program (LoCIP) funding that will be used to make a series of improvements to the 48-year-old station.

“These will be the first real upgrades to the station since it was built,” Chief Vernon Skau said, walking through a day room where the same types of air-conditioning units that failed upstairs hummed away near sets of rotating fans.

The new ductless heating and cooling units, which will replace the old, rattling units set in place with cardboard and tape, will alone cost nearly $100,000, but are expected to be more energy efficient and lead to long-term savings. Work to the floor, ceilings, roof and painting accounts for most of the rest of the cost.

“Things cost so much more now and the money doesn’t go as far,” Skau said. But firefighters perform better, feel more appreciated, and remain more committed when they know that our city supports them. This investment leads to stronger service, better morale and greater public safety.”

The project also calls for renovating firefighter sleeping areas and bathrooms, the latter which Skau described as “vintage.” The bunk room decor is reminiscent of a 1970s summer camp, with metal spring beds and gouged pressboard storage spaces.

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Skau said the sleeping area and bathroom will be gutted and rebuilt with partitions added to give relaxing firefighters a little privacy.

“These are places where firefighters, working 24-hour shifts, can spend a third of their lives,” Skau said. “So, for (Mayor Michael Passero) and the City Council to support us with this project means a lot to our members. It means they’re seen as valued.”

The council on June 2 awarded the project contact to Danbury-based BMP Construction, which previously completed renovations to the South Fire Station on Lower Boulevard and the department’s main headquarters building on Bank Street.

“This is the last station to get some attention,” Skau said in a hallway where battered lockers were decorated with New York Yankees and St. Bernard High School softball team stickers.

LoCIP monies are awarded each year to municipalities for major road, bridge and public building projects. The city or town allocates the cost of the work and is later reimbursed with LoCIP funds.

Director of Public Works Brian Sear said without those state funds, the city would have to draw on its $2 million-a-year infrastructure bonding or $300,000 annual building repair budgets.

“Which means we had less money for road, sidewalk and other upgrade work,” Sear said, adding the North Station work wraps up a series of long-needed firehouse upgrades. “These are decades-old buildings and I’m very proud we’ve been able to improve t

DARLEY—Lac Courte Oreilles Fire Department, Hayward, WI., Polyvision Quick Attack pumper. Navistar CV515 cab and chassis; Navistar 6.6L 350-hp diesel engine; Darley Champion PSMC 1,500-gpm pump; 415-gallon polypropylene water tank; 25-gallon foam cell; FoamPro 2002 single-agent foam system; Darley CAFS 120-cfm system; Copolymer body. Dealer: Troy Crothers, Darley Company, Chippewa Falls, WI.

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Brandon Clark
Daily Gazette, Sterling, Ill.
(TNS)

Jun. 26—STERLING — The Sterling Fire Department may soon receive a long-overdue upgrade to its communication system that could vastly improve coordination with local law enforcement and enhance firefighter safety.

Nearly four years after the death of Sterling Fire Lt. Garrett Ramos during a rural Rock Falls house fire in December 2021, the department remains focused on closing gaps in its emergency response capabilities.

While the immediate cause of Ramos’ death was ruled asphyxiation after falling through a floor during the blaze, a deeper issue emerged in the aftermath: communication breakdown. At the time of the incident, his radio had been set to a frequency that prevented him from being heard — a delay that may have cost him his life.

Now, thanks to a Congressional Funding program championed by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the department has been placed in an approval position for a $420,000 request to replace its outdated radios. Sterling Fire Chief David Northcutt told Shaw Local that the measure is expected to move forward for a vote.

“The grant is for portable and mobile radios,” Northcutt said. “We have applied for a lot of money this year for new SCBA’s [self-contained breathing apparatus], a new tender [tanker], and a new aerial [truck]. All of these purchases are just as important as our communications considering we have radios currently.”

The core issue facing SFD’s communication system is incompatibility with other agencies’ technology.

Northcutt said that when the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Office switched to StarCom radios for all police agencies in the county, the SFD lost its direct communication link with them. That disconnect now requires emergency dispatchers to manually switch channels between fire departments and law enforcement, an inefficient process that could cost precious moments during an emergency, and in the worst cases, a firefighter’s life.

“Due to the amount of radio traffic police have, and the amount we have, we can’t always use the same channels, nor scan each other,” Northcutt said. “It’s a slow and at times confusing task to switch channels in the middle of an event.”

The solution: Dual-band radios — the same technology that Northcutt said is now used by the Sterling Police Department. They would allow both departments to communicate directly, without relying on dispatchers to serve as go-betweens.

However, SFD’s limited budget capacity has placed these dual-band radios, which can cost upward of $16,000 each, out of the department’s reach.

If approved, the federal funds would allow Sterling to bring its radio communications in line with surrounding agencies and current safety standards.

“This would allow us to have each other’s channels in our portables,” Northcutt said. “We wouldn’t have to go through dispatch to try and coordinate in the middle of an emergency.”

© 2025 the Daily Gazette (Sterling, Ill.). Visit www.saukvalley.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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