Fire truck offered to Western NC 

BY MILES LAYTON

EDENTON, North Carolina — Rather than write some tepid account of Monday’s Chowan County Commission meeting better suited for dead tree media, here’s what happened. 

Victor Ramage with Mission Critical Partners (MCP) gave a presentation about a study the company conducted to assist with planning for radio communication across the county.

Presently, yes, there is radio, albeit through various means, that is used by first responders near and far throughout the county. However, it is not all on one wavelength. Meaning, Edenton Police might utilize the VIPER system to communicate via radio, but the first responders in Rocky Hock use another system of radio communication, so it’s probably a good idea that everyone is on the same channel.  

For taxpayers and fiscal conservatives, that study cost the county $44,952.

To build a radio system that connects the county end to end, the proposed cost would be around $4.3 million. 

MCP’s presentation just generated discussion among commissioners who had questions about such a project — NO DECISION HAS BEEN MADE.  That said, commissioners may revisit the discussion of this issue during their summer retreat. 

MCP’s recommended building a four-site conventional simulcast system using an 800-megahertz frequency band for all public safety operations.  Fire alerting would remain on the VHF channel. 

Ramage said doing this would satisfy many needs:

• Improve outdoor radio coverage throughout the county. 
• Improve portable radio coverage inside buildings. 
• Provide direct communication between public safety subscriber radios vs. patching different frequency bands VHF, 800 MHz and VIPER
• 800 MHz subscriber radios can be equipped with VIPER
• 800 MHz and P25 protocol have better radio frequency interference protection compared to VHF analog
• Public works agencies can continue operations on existing channels and can be patched to public safety agencies.

Commissioners asked Ramage a few questions about the impact on radio waves, such as:

• Do wind turbines affect radio waves? Somewhat, yes.
• Metal roofs? A little bit, but not as much as chain link fences.
• Trees? Yes
• Extreme northern part of the county covered? Not on MCP’s map. 
• Will the county’s future fiber optic network affect radio network costs? Yes – messages transmitted via fiber optic cable would lower the costs for any project.

Speaking of costs:

• $2.59 million — Construction of two new sites (NCCC and Route 32/27) and upgrades to the existing Vahalla and PSAP radio sites
• $876,400 — Four-site/Five channel P25 conventional 800 MHz simulcast and voting radio system and modifications for radio channels and recording
• $526,000 – Three forced high-availability microwave links (PSAP to Vahalla, Vahalla to NCCC and PSAP to Route 32/37)
• ESTIMATED Cost — $3.99 million
• MCP suggests adding a 10 percent contingency to this estimate
• TOTAL Project Cost — $4.39 million   

In other business, commissioners endorsed plans to possibly give a tanker truck from the Center Hill-Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department to any community fire department in the mountains of North Carolina that’s in need. 

No, the tanker truck is not some bright, shiny new vehicle that’s a robot in disguise — Transformers joke — but rather it is a 36-year-old truck that, well, just holds 1,000 gallons of water that is gravity-fed to hoses. Because of its age, the truck was scheduled to be removed from service, placed on a government auction site such as govdeals.com and sold for surplus. 

Now, if a fire department, perhaps one serving a small town or rural community, needs a tanker truck because of Helene, Chowan County is there to help by offering this truck to folks who can use it.

“It’s a tanker truck, an old one that still works fine,” County Manager Kevin Howard said.

Commissioner Larry McLaughlin asked, “In what regard is this truck still usable? Could it be stationed in the northern or southern end of the county?”

Fire Captain Alan Monds answered, “It’s just literally a tanker – it has no pump, no nothing. It’s pretty much outdated — it’s done us good for many years but it won’t do us any more good. … It’s not worth a whole lot because it doesn’t have a pump.”  He said there are issues with housing the truck at the fire department. 

Monds said, “It would be a good truck for somebody out west that needs something right now.”

Anyone who wants a truck out west in those parts affected by Helene — first-come, first serve. If no one wants the truck, then the county goes back to square one — puts the truck on govdeals.com, sells it as surplus. 

In other news, Howard said repairs and renovations to the county Courthouse are on schedule  for completion in December.  

However, Howard said, there has been a setback — HVAC units have “died,” so instead of repairing old machines that are mounted on the roof, the county will ask the courthouse project’s architect to design another place for a new HVAC system. 

“The whole goal is to get everything off the roof,” Howard said. HVAC being on the roof — that’s caused ongoing problems.  

For the time being, a temporary HVAC unit will be installed — fortunately, it is October and not July. 

Howard said these changes would not affect the courthouse project’s completion timeline.   

Speaking of Howard, he mentioned that the two Cyprus trees in front of the library will either be removed or significantly trimmed back because they’ve grown too tall so much so that they are blocking the library’s front windows. Trees — rainwater coming off the trees — are causing the windows’ wood frames to rot.  Howard said no special permission is needed to remove/trim the trees because they are less than 50 years old.

Another thing — Howard said the county is studying a joint-county venture with Gates and Perquimans counties about whether to build a regional jail, one that would be located in the northern end of Chowan County.  Commissioners have said a jail would reduce costs associated with transporting and housing prisoners. 

The site for the new jail has yet to be determined. If Gates and Perquimans agree, Chowan County does have two sites that could be considered. One is on Haughton Road. The other is behind the Valhalla Water Plant on NC 32. When that plant is shut down, there are 15 acres behind the tower that could be used.

One more thing — Chris Elsbree, Director Chowan County’s GIS/Land Records, gave the annual report from Land Records. A few takeaways — wind turbines are not as yet on the county’s maps, though they can be located via GPS. Dirt roads — if that is the right way to describe unnamed byways of travel to the wind turbines — they will need to be mapped.

Commissioner Ron Cummings asked if someone could use a deed to lay claim to someone else’s property fraudulently and if that person could get away with it. 

Elsbee said there are three separate sets of eyes — Land Records, Tax Office and Register of Deeds — so any attempt at fraud would be discovered. 

• Expenditure — the Perquimans-Gates-Chowan Transfer Station needs $150,000 in repairs — cost to each county to contribute $50,000. Howard concrete within the transfer station needs some work. 
• Appointment — Chasity Pailin was appointed a regular seat on the Chowan County Board of Adjustment; Trevor Miles to one of the two vacant seats.  

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Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Oct. 14, 2024, to include details about the proposed regional jail.