Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Plan for Emergency Radio Net Is Said to Spare Protected Lands

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 06:52:21 -0400

Plan for Emergency Radio Net Is Said to Spare Protected Lands
By MARC SANTORA and AL BAKER

Published: May 7, 2004

ALBANY, May 6 - New York's ambitious effort to create a statewide
wireless emergency communications system will not include any
construction in the protected wilderness areas of the Adirondacks and
Catskills, officials in the Pataki administration said on Thursday.

In detailing the project for the first time since awarding the $1
billion contract, the administration said that rather than building
hundreds of towers in the mountains, as environmentalists had feared,
the plan is for only a handful of towers to be erected in populated
areas, and for repeaters, mounted on emergency vehicles, to be used to
improve radio signals to give police, fire and other agencies across New
York greater coordination in responding to disasters.

The contract, the largest technology pact in the state's history, has
generated sharp criticism from environmentalists worried about the
project's impact on pristine areas, and it has also drawn scrutiny from
lawmakers and others who denounce what they see as a lack of openness
about bidding process.

Yesterday, the Pataki administration moved to allay fears about the
project, describing it as a "pilot program" that can be ended at any
time.

The administration announced the awarding of the contract on Friday to a
subsidiary of Tyco International. That company, M/A-Com, was represented
by former Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato in its efforts to secure the work.

Democratic lawmakers, led by Assemblywoman RoAnn M. Destito, from the
Utica area, have called for hearings into the awarding of the contract.
The state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, a Democrat, is looking into the
matter.

The Assembly, with a majority of Democrats, and the
Republican-controlled Senate have called for a joint conference
committee, a relatively rare event in Albany, to try and formulate a
reform package that would require the disclosure of costs and expenses
incurred while lobbying for contracts with state agencies and
authorities.

A Pataki administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity
said an outside firm looked at the integrity of the process and found
that the state had taken every precaution to be sure the contract was
awarded properly.

In describing the effort as a pilot program, two administration
officials were careful to say that they viewed the deal in its early
stages where the technology could be tested in one section of the state
for roughly a year before any long-term commitment is made.

"We can pull the plug any time," said one of the officials, insisting on
anonymity because negotiations to complete the deal are still under way.

Those negotiations could take as long as six months. It could be two
years before the pilot program is completed and three years after that
before any kind of system is put into place, according to the
administration.

The awarding of the contract comes more than eight years after the
Pataki administration initially envisioned the system, three years after
it began drawing up details of what it wanted and more than a year after
the two companies bidding on the project submitted their proposals.

Democrats, Republicans and police union officials have all said New York
needs to update its antiquated state police communications system. "It
is an old, outdated system,'' said Daniel M. DeFedericis, president of
the Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers Inc.
"The system is limping along with remnant radio parts from the 1960's."
Mr. DeFedericis and other union officials said that in 2001, in
Ogdensburg, N.Y., a state trooper had to leave the side of an
investigator, who had been shot in the stomach with a rifle and was
bleeding, because his hand-held radio did not work and he could not call
for help from the scene. The investigator lived.

"We've had some awfully close calls because the radio system fails to
reach the entire patrol area,'' Mr. DeFedericis said.
Republicans who support a statewide wireless network have also been
critical over delays in getting the project moving.

"Given the lessons of 9/11 and the urgency of the issue, I am very
frustrated it has taken this long to get the program to the point of the
initial stages," said State Senator Michael A. L. Balboni, a Republican
from Long Island and a leading proponent of enhancing the state's
domestic security apparatus.

In fact, as far back as 1998, the Pataki administration had reached a
tentative deal to engage in a partnership with Motorola to develop a
hybrid system that would have built a few towers in the Adirondacks and
Catskills, limiting the coverage in those areas but avoiding significant
environmental damage.

Shortly after reaching that tentative deal, the state comptroller at the
time, H. Carl McCall - who was preparing for a run against Gov. George
E. Pataki - voiced concern about the deal. The Pataki administration
decided that instead of challenging him, they would open the contract up
for bidding.

An administration official said the process had taken so long because
officials wanted to ensure that New York had the best system. After
Sept. 11, that took on added urgency.

The proposals, offered by the Tyco subsidiary, M/A-Com, and Motorola,
were so different in what they said the job would cost - with Tyco's bid
for the 20-year contract coming in at roughly $1 billion and Motorola's
bid costing roughly $3 billion - that many observers, Republicans and
Democrats alike, wondered how such disparate bids could each satisfy the
state's requirements.

Critics of the deal pointed to Pennsylvania, where Tyco, a company based
in Bermuda, has the contract to build a similar system that is already
three years late. It also has cost more than double what the company
said it would in its bid.
The Tyco subsidiary's winning bid in New York is roughly three times
more expensive than what any other state in the country is spending to
install a similar system.

In offering new details of the project on Thursday, a Pataki
administration official said New York could achieve its goal to cover 95
percent of the state's geographic area, and 97 percent of its roadways,
with as few as four towers built in the Adirondacks and the Catskills
and none in protected areas, sharply fewer than the 400 towers that
Motorola, the company competing for the project, had proposed.

Administration officials said the different approach to building new
towers was the major reason for the vast difference in the cost of the
bids.

An official at Motorola, which is examining its options and might appeal
the state's decision, as well as several Democratic lawmakers, said they
believed the state had been very specific in what it required of the
bidders and that the Tyco bid did not meet the requirements. But since
no one has seen the full details of the Tyco proposal, they were relying
on public statements and sketchy details that have leaked out.

In the state's own specifications, which are available at the state
Office for Technology Web site, there are 300 pages of very specific
requirements. For instance, while an administration official said
telephone poles would be used to locate equipment, the state
specifications seem to require that the poles be metal. In addition, the
state specifications call for 2,000-gallon propane tanks to provide a
backup power supply and bulletproof shelters at the base of transmitter
sites.
It remains unclear how the Tyco plan meets these requirements.

In the Tyco proposal, repeaters are an essential element in avoiding the
construction of towers. Repeaters are used throughout the country as a
standard way of giving greater amplification to the transmissions of
hand-held radios. But the technology is not foolproof. For instance,
firefighters in the World Trade Center who responded to the Sept. 11
attack had communication problems despite the fact that a repeater in a
fire chief's car had been turned on.
Some law enforcement officials are puzzled over how the state came to
its decision.

"We've had a real positive relationship with Motorola for a number of
years; they've served a lot of police departments around the state very,
very well,'' said John Grebert, assistant director of the New York State
Association of Chiefs of Police Inc. "But as far as what made the state
finally decide to go with Tyco or M/A-Com, I really don't know that."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/nyregion/07network.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5062&en=70273088ec2a8802&ex=1084507200&partner=GOOGLE

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