New technology will help SG firefighters by Susan O'Neill A lease agreement between the village of Sugar Grove and the Sugar Grove Fire Protection District will allow the Fire District to place antennas on the water towers at New Bond Road and Railroad Street. The antennas on the two water towers and another water tower in the Foxmoor Subdivision in Montgomery, an old radio tower on McCannon Road and another on the Waubonsee Community College campus, will be used in a new wireless network system. The system will allow communication between firefighters and paramedics in the field and between the field and the dispatch center throughout the district. Sugar Grove Township Fire Chief Marty Kunkel said there is currently only one antenna in Prestbury, leaving very poor communication coverage in some neighborhoods in the southern portion of the district. The wireless system was made possible through a $334,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security. The department will use the funding to purchase new hand-held and mobile radios, and the system will switch to a narrow band frequency that only Sugar Grove Fire District personnel will use. Data will also be accessible through new wireless laptops in each Fire District vehicle. Firefighters and paramedics will be able to access valuable information about a building on their way to a fire or other emergency. Kunkel said the Sugar Grove Fire District is currently negotiating with the village of Montgomery to dispatch fire and other emergency calls directly through the Montgomery 911 center. This arrangement will allow the communication to bypass Kane County's system, improving the district's response time. In exchange, the villages of Sugar Grove and Montgomery will have access and use of the wireless communication system, with the infrastructure covering 34 square miles. Kunkel said the new technology will allow the police departments to communicate more effectively, and the public works departments to control village-wide functions from one location. The entire system should be completed and up-and-running by next February or March, Kunkel said. “We want to take our time and do it right,” he said. 12/14/2007