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More than a decade after planning began and more than two years after breaking ground, Tompkins County today marked completion of its new Public Safety Communications System, a state-of-the-art system that officials praise as a critical tool to protect the citizens of Tompkins County. 

Now that construction is complete, county officials, emergency response leaders and representatives of the many community partners who have collaborated over many years to make the new system reality gathered at the system’s transmitter site on the Ithaca College campus, one of the network’s ten linked transmitter sites.  They celebrated the project, the cooperation that achieved it and, most important, the benefit of new system to the County’s citizens.  The new 800 megaHertz, trunked radio system  was built through a $22 million capital project that is the largest in County history.

“When the public calls 911, they are expecting a fast, well-coordinated response,” noted Lee Shurtleff, who has overseen the communications project as the County’s Director of Emergency Response.  “Key to that is reliable communications.  This network assures reliable and redundant communications paths for the entire first responder community on a common operating platform, enabling responders, regardless of discipline or geographical location, to talk directly to each other without functional limitations.

“It achieves the goal of solid county-wide radio coverage, enabling a responder to immediately communicate from the scene of any incident,” Director Shurtleff added.  “As we have experienced, this system may be the only fully operational communications system during emergency events such as wind and ice storms, electrical black-outs, and system failures.  In building this system, we have provided a community safety net.”


Calling the county’s 911 system one which has provided the very best service available at the lowest cost to Tompkins County residents, Ithaca Fire Chief Brian Wilbur, who chairs the County’s Emergency Communications Review and Oversight Committee, recognized the vision of former long-time Fire and Disaster Coordinator Jack Miller, who anticipated the future and acquired several 800 megaHertz radio frequencies.  The County then decided to pursue the more comprehensive and technologically superior system.  “This decision set in motion a series of events that required public safety agencies and legislative bodies to work together for the common good,” said Chief Wilbur.  “Over ten years later, we are here today to celebrate the achievements that vision, cooperation, and commitment have earned.  The most important aspect of all of this is the tremendous value the entire project provides to the citizens of Tompkins County.”

The achievements to date, officials note, are only the beginning.  The new system includes the capacity to accommodate may users (such as responders from entities including public works, public health, transportation, hospitals, colleges and other local government functions), to link with other state and regional systems, and to support new applications which will benefit the citizens of Tompkins County.  The future efforts will also include upgrading planning, training, and exercises involving agencies and organizations from across the county to ensure maximum value is derived from this investment.

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