Saratoga County officials and first responders are celebrating multi-million-dollar American Rescue Plan Act investments.
Saratoga County received $45 million in ARPA funding, and 10% of it went toward upgrading 10 emergency services communication towers, new radios for deputies, and a new Computer Aided Dispatch system in first responder vehicles.
Mark Freiberger is Deputy Director of Operations at the Clifton Park and Halfmoon Emergency Corps. He says the funds have been literally life-saving.
“You don’t always know where the faults are in the system and where your gaps in communication are going to be. For us, I can’t point to maybe a specific area, but just knowing that those improvements are constantly being looked at and invested in is huge for us because you don’t know you’re in a dead spot on your radio system until you’re in it. And it’s usually when you find out you find that out as you’re trying to key up the radio and get some help, right? And if you can’t get that help, you’re in trouble. So, you know, I think the impact it has on us is lessening the odds that we’re going to find ourselves in an area where we can’t communicate,” said Freiberger.
The Computer Aided Dispatch system, Freiberger says, allows first responders already in the field to relay vital information to their colleagues across the county more effectively.
“We only get so much information over the 9-1-1 line, right? You can only tell somebody so much information over the phone. So, to get a set of eyes on the scene and have somebody take a look at the patient or take a look at the scene is invaluable. And if I have an ambulance coming from here and somebody in Rexford is already on the scene, they’re a fire chief, and they can relay really important information to us that says, ‘hey, maybe I need to start a second ambulance, maybe I need to get some additional resources here. The sooner we get that help coming the better. And we can’t do any of that if we can’t communicate,” said Freiberger.
County EMS Coordinator Mike McEvoy says the ARPA funds have added numerous redundancies to the tools used by first responders—cutting down on risks posed by aging infrastructure without replacing entire systems at much higher costs.
“The last thing that we did was took advantage of a new technology referred to as Smart Connect, which when our law enforcement officers, our paramedics, our firefighters are inside a big box store or huge building like a shopping mall or a school, a nursing home, or Perhaps in the basement of a house fighting a fire, the radios now sometimes drop off of the system that we’re using, and this new feature allows them to connect through cellular or connect through Wi-Fi seamlessly,” said McEvoy.
Congressman Paul Tonko is a Democrat from the 20th district.
“We can have all that technology and all the investment in the infrastructure that they require, but it begins and ends with the human infrastructure. So, I really appreciate the passion to serve, the readiness to serve, and the training you endure, and the stress you live with, with every response that makes a difference,” said Tonko.
Republican Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chair Phil Barrett says the county set aside an additional $1 million to continue the ARPA-funded momentum.
“In the southern part of our county, we have a burgeoning issue with EMS and fire department, police, first responder, communications and that million dollars is currently being expended to improve communications in the southern part of our county,” said Barrett.
Nearly $24 billion in ARPA funding was allocated to New York state.