It was November when Cayuga County legislators approved an emergency $30,000 expenditure to correct a problem with the county's emergency radio system following a system failure in the southern end of the county. The fix was made, but emergency responders at the time urged the Legislature and county officials to move more quickly on an overhaul of the system.

Roughly eight months later, little has been done, and the problems are getting worse. Genoa Fire Department Chief Doug LaFave said the system was down five times between June 15 and 21. He and his colleagues are becoming increasingly fearful - and frustrated - about the consequences of inaction.

“It's unfortunately very old equipment,” LaFave said.

“That's my concern as a fire chief - people aren't worried about it,” he said.

Another source of frustration, fire officials said, is the approach the county's 911 department has taken to handling outages.

“A week or two ago ... it was out for hours,” said Matt Nalley, Sempronius fire chief. “I was home sleeping. It was out at 1:10 in the morning. No one notified us from 911. There was no phone call, no text message. They could not operate our pagers for us to man the firehouse.”

When the system goes down, he said, firefighters are supposed to be contacted so they can man the firehouse phone until the system is fixed. Nalley spoke with Denise Stayton, Cayuga County 911 administrator, to complain about the lack of a procedure to follow when radio communication is lost.

“In the meantime, we're left out to dry unless Denise is going to put a policy in place.” Nalley said. “She told us after we met (in November) that there would be a standard procedure for dispatchers to follow. She didn't do anything.”

But Stayton said a procedure is in place and has been followed. She

pointed to the response on June 20, when a key station went down in the southern end of the county.

“On this day, all departments were notified, via text message, of the problem, and the Southern Cayuga County departments were asked to man their stations,” she said via e-mail. “The majority of the fire chiefs contacted Fire Control to obtain detailed information for their departments. All departments did a great job with communications and all went well.”

But fire chiefs say the reliance on text messages is flawed because some areas don't receive adequate wireless service. On the night when his department was out of the loop, Nalley said, Ray Dyer, Locke fire chief, did receive a text message so he called Nalley.

“The three-town district never got a text message from 911,” Nalley said.

“They've got to call us,” he said, “on the home phone or work phone, not a cell phone.”

“She's relying on cell phones and text messages,” he said. “It falls on deaf ears. Who's assuming liability if someone dies in a house fire?”

Nalley said he called county Legislator Ray Lockwood, who also chairs the Judicial and Public Safety Committee.

“He had a right to know the 911 administrator dropped the ball,” Nalley said. “It's bad enough to lose a civilian. You lose a fireman, and it's gonna get ugly.”

Stayton said the problems are being taken seriously. The challenge is the long-term solution takes considerable time and money.

“They're so frustrated and they have a right to be,” Stayton said. “The overall issue is the microwave system. There are 15 main components. Replacing one isn't the solution.”

She said the whole system has to be reconfigured, which could take at least five years.

“Again, any issue with public safety is serious, and not taken lightly,” she said. “We do the best that we can to be proactive, ensuring that we eliminate as many problems as possible.

“Until the entire system is replaced, we must handle problems as they arise. I think the county has taken a very aggressive approach in reviewing the current infrastructure and our legislators have been kept in touch with the many issues we've experienced. Every issue has been responded to in a timely fashion.”

A radio committee is meeting next week, Stayton said, to review a draft of a request for proposals to hire a consultant.

Lockwood hopes that the county can save time and money by using Madison County's consultant, who has been dealing with similar problems over the past seven years. That county's terrain, with valleys and hills, is filled with dead zones, much like Cayuga County's.

“The valleys are what kill us,” Lockwood said, “especially in the south.”

Lockwood is optimistic the current Legislature will move quickly.

“This is the most cordial atmosphere we've ever had in the Legislature,” he said. “We should know (soon) whether the Legislature has the appetite or not for this kind of expenditure. What price do you put on life?”

Lockwood said there will be some grants that the county should be able to capture and some they're still fishing for.

“Can we wait for them? I don't know,” Lockwood said.

But he pledged to forge ahead on this issue.

“I'm speaking for me,” he said. “There are 15 people (on the Legislature). I think the majority of legislators are 100 percent behind me. I know I will make it my No. 1 priority.”

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311, ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net