Channels clear for Hilltowns in emergencies

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG - New radio equipment acquired with a homeland security grant has revolutionized communication among six Hilltown communities during emergencies - and just in time, says Police Chief John W. Cotton.

Cotton said that when he became chief of the department in 2006, communication between local officers and other Hilltown police departments was so poor that he made improving the system a top priority.

"I came to Williamsburg from the Northampton Police Department where I was the senior lieutenant, and in Northampton you could pick up the radio and talk to anyone at the Police Department at any time," Cotton said. "When I came to Williamsburg, the only people you could to talk to were the dispatchers at Northampton control and if we had an officer on the backside of a certain hill or driving down a certain road then the terrain wouldn't allow me to get a hold of them. It was pretty archaic."

Shortly after taking over the department in 2006, Cotton said, he began talking to other Hilltown police chiefs about finding funding to install a regional "two-way radio repeater" on a tower in Goshen. Towns applying for the money included Goshen, Cummington, Chesterfield, Huntington, Williamsburg and Worthington.

Although the group was denied its initial request, Cotton said that in November the six towns snagged a $46,000 grant to install the equipment and update the departments' radios. All that, Cotton said, was fortunately completed just two days before the region suffered a devastating ice storm.

"We turned on the repeater and now Williamsburg could talk to Cummington and Cummington could talk to Goshen - it was revolutionary," Cotton said. "Then all of a sudden that ice storm hit, and my big concern was that with the tower coated in ice it would either not transmit a signal or collapse under the weight of the ice."

The early-December storm, which resulted in hundreds of downed trees and telephone wires across the region, temporarily knocked out communication between Hilltown police and fire departments and Northampton control. That problem, Cotton said, would have been devastating had it not been for the newly installed equipment.

"I don't know what happened, but somewhere we had wires fall or a phone line broke and everyone instantly switched over to the new channel, and it helped us with everything from coordinating with tree clearers to letting people know which towns had shelters open."

Cotton said the success of the new system's unavoidable test-run illustrated how all six communities are now better prepared than ever to respond to emergency situations.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.