NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen has accepted $30,845 from the Maine Emergency Management Agency to purchase a generator and a repeater for the Norway Fire Department.
The money, which was acquired through a grant written by Assistant Fire Chief Tim Yates, will be used to purchase the repeater and generator that will be placed on the Global Tower Partner’s communication tower on Frost Hill for improved communications.
“We’ll be serving two communities from Frost Hill” Fire Chief Dennis Yates said. The repeater will be shared with the Otisfield Fire Department and reconfigured so both towns can talk at the same time if necessary without overlapping each other.”
If all goes according to plan, equipment will be placed on the Frost Hill cell tower in Norway to provide expanded emergency radio coverage in both Otisfield and Norway by late October, Yates said. Both towns will have a repeater near the top of the tower and equipment to prevent each from interfering with the other in case of dual transmissions.
The department will build a shed to house equipment at the base of the tower. The cost will be split by both towns.
Yates offered Otisfield fire Chief Mike Hooker the use of the repeater to improve their radio communications after that town’s attempt to get a communication tower on Scribner Hill was thwarted by a group of residents who objected to the way the permitting process was handled.
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