Acting Fire Chief Patrick Egloff (left) and Deputy Fire Chief Andy Hart explain to the Finance Committe why the fire boxes need to be replaced. (Photo by Peter Currier)
WESTFIELD- The City Council Finance Committee approved the appropriation of funds for various upgrades to some of the city’s law enforcement and emergency services equipment and systems Thursday night in a meeting in City Council chambers.
The first item on the agenda was to appropriate $172,000 from free cash to the Westfield Fire Department. Deputy Fire Chief, Andy Hart, said that the money would be used to upgrade some of the aging pieces of the city fire alarm system. Hart said that some of the master boxes, which communicate with the fire department to inform them of a fire, are about 28 years old and there are no more parts to repair them with.
“The master boxes are what sends a signal to the fire station for us to know what building came in,” said Hart, “Your building has a smoke detector that trips a fire alarm, and immediately trips a signal through the master box to the fire station.”
Hart added that there are approximately 50 obsolete boxes throughout the city with seven of them on city buildings. He said that there had previously been issues with the boxes in various schools throughout the city. The boxes at the time were able to be repaired, but now the parts to do so have run out. Egloff said that in some cases, they had to ‘cannibalize’ parts from other boxes to fix ones in need of repair. Hart said that the boxes had been installed in 1991.
“That equipment is vital to the city because of liability,” said Hart, “we receive signals from 200 buildings in the city. We are liable to receive that.”
Hart added that they would be replacing the boxes with newer ones, as well as upgrading the dispatch equipment at the fire stations. He added that these new upgrades should be good for at least 20 years.
City Councilors John Beltrandi III and Dan Allie, members of the finance committee, approved the appropriation of the funds. It was moved to a vote in City Council, where it also passed nine votes to two, with Councilors Andrew Surprise and Matt Emmershy voting against it. Before the vote was taken, there was a debate among the council about the use of free cash for the fire box upgrades.
The next agenda item was a transfer of $37,634.96 from the Westfield Police Department Towing and Storage of Motor Vehicles account to the Westfield Police Department Special Account for Towing and Storage of Vehicles. Police Chief John Camerota said that the funds would be used to replace a 13-year-old Ford F-150 that is used to carry equipment. Camerota said that the truck is, ‘basically falling apart’ and needs to be removed from service.
The committee quickly approved the transfer of funds and moved the vote to City Council, who also approved it.
