Fire Chief Tom Francesconi, left, and Police Chief Tim Garner, right, with the Cheshire Fire Department’s new electronic sign purchased with a $665,000 SAFER grant. (Ryan Hutton/North Adams Transcript)
By Ryan Hutton
Posted: 04/23/2011 12:25:44 AM EDT
CHESHIRE -- After four years, the $665,962 federal firefighting grant Cheshire received in 2007 has finally run its course, but has left one final, lasting marker of its existence -- a sign.
Two weeks ago, the Cheshire Fire Department installed a new electronic sign outside of the fire station courtesy of the Staffing for Adequate Fire Safety & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant that the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded the town.
"I think this is going to be a real, lasting asset to our community," said Jim Pasquini, the grant’s administrator. "Knowledge is power and now the fire department has the technology to keep the community informed."
The grant ended on April 1 and the sign was the last thing purchased before it expired. Over the last four years, the grant -- which was originally intended for recruitment marketing -- has been changed by FEMA and DHS to allow the department to purchase new turnout gear for the 30 firefighters it recruited as well as for education and training purposes.
Barry Emery, the department’s technical assistant, said that in addition to recruitment notices, the sign has plenty of ancillary benefits, too.
"We used to have garden club sale notices up there for a week straight and nothing else," he said. "Now, we can set it to cycle through several different messages every few seconds if we need to. We can
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
set times of day when specific messages go up and it will do it and then put back up the normal messages automatically."
Emery said the department can also set certain displays to occur every year. For example, a series of messages can be set to automatically go up for every Fire Prevention Week or at the start of burning permit season.
"When we set up a series of signs on the board, you’ll see that nine times out of 10, one of them has to do with volunteering and recruitment," Emery said. "That’s a big part of this -- it’s a marketing device."
The old sign outside of the department used interchangeable letters that took time to put up. The new sign enables the department to change the message via email so officials don’t even have to be at the station to update it.
Fire Chief Tom Francesconi said the department is no longer stuck with only a single message to the public at one time. He said the new sign can cycle through messages every few seconds and can include things like Amber alerts, missing person alerts and can even display website information such as the national weather service’s radar of North County along with storm warnings.
"It used to be that we’d have to stand out there in the cold and change the letters," Police Chief Tim Garner said. "Now, if we have road closings or school closings or any type of emergency, it’s right there on the main street through town."
"Tim is just glad he doesn’t have to be the guy to stand out there in the snow and rain to change the letters and chase them down the street when they would blow away," Francesconi added.
Because it is made up of dozens and dozens of energy-efficient LEDs, the sign only draws about as much power as a regular incandescent light bulb.
"It also has a light sensor on it so when the sun goes down, it will dim and save power because it won’t need to be as bright," Emery said. "It’s already set so that, at night, it’s just the time and temperature on a black background."
Francesconi said that even now that the SAFER grant has ended, the sign will be an excellent way to continue educating and recruiting.
"One of the big benefits I see to this is that we can keep the public educated about exactly what the fire department does," he said. "We can put up there how many calls we have each month or when we’re having a seminar or anything like that -- just keeping people informed on what the fire department or EMS are all about."
No comments:
Post a Comment