The town’s communications system, authorized by voters at referendums in 2020 and 2021, is expected to be finished within a month, according to First Selectman Dan Rosenthal.

The project, which was voter authorized for $7.5 million, is expected to come in well under budget, with a total of approximately $7 million spent.

It provided Motorola switches, routers, three new base stations, upgrades to the current five base stations, and radios within most of the town’s emergency vehicles, allowing the town to switch from analogue communications to digital, giving the fire companies, police department, ambulance corps, and NUSAR better communications coverage as well as the ability to freely communicate between departments using the system.

At the June 19 Board of Selectmen meeting, Rosenthal revealed the town had also considered the possibility of a warranty from Motorola. The warranty would be paid on a yearly basis, and Motorola priced the first five years at $174K for the first year, $226K for the second year, $233K for the third year, $242K for the fourth year, and $250K for the fifth year, for a total of $1.13 million over that span.

Rosenthal said that the cost was split between maintenance and upgrades to operating software in the equipment. The split in the cost between maintenance and upgrades has the upgrade portion being “reasonably small,” starting at $49K in the first year and ending at $79K in the fifth year.

However, Rosenthal recommended against getting the warranty, at least initially. He felt that with a brand new system, the risk of expensive equipment replacements being necessary was low.

“There is an expectation that the town will put a premium on public safety,” said Rosenthal. “But the dollar value here is low. I’m comfortable with the risk, at least for now. We may buy in later.”

Rosenthal said he presented the warranty plans to the selectmen, Board of Finance, and Legislative Council so they would know it was available instead of Rosenthal “just taking the plan and stuffing it in a drawer.” He said none of the town’s fiscal bodies objected to waiting on the warranty for a few years.

He said that many other towns have opted out, and that if the town decides to start the warranty a few years later, it won’t be substantially more expensive than if they opted in immediately. He also said that he was recommending the town put aside some money in an account in case there are equipment failures prior to the town starting the warranty.

“We don’t want to be running around trying to find the money to do it,” said Rosenthal.

The warranty will also eventually become necessary as the operating software moves into future iterations. If a piece of equipment fails, then a new piece of equipment bought using a hypothetical “version 4” of the operating system would not be compatible with the town’s equipment still using “version 1.”

Mark DeWolfe, a Sandy Hook firefighter who served on the Communications Subcommittee, said everything was “wrapping up.”

“The project started in 2019, and we’re getting there,” said DeWolfe. “We need to do a little more conversion, then we can fire it up.”

Rosenthal said that as of this week, most of the equipment was switched out, with some ambulances and NUSAR vehicles still to be done. Botsford and Hawleyville were also being worked on as of the June 19 Board of Selectmen meeting.

Until all the radios are installed, and one more base station needs to be finished up, the town’s system will remain analogue. When everything is finished, they can make the switch to digital. All the new equipment is capable of both analogue and digital communications, but older equipment cannot do digital.

The old system was 20 years old and “top of the line” at the time, said Rosenthal. However, there were a number of coverage gaps where emergency services had to resort to cell phones because “Newtown was a very large town and not very flat.” The new system will substantially reduce those gaps.

“This is a very, very significant infrastructure upgrade project,” said DeWolfe.

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.