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By JENNIFER LEARN jlearn@leader.net
Saturday, February 05, 2000 Page: 5A
PITTSTON TWP. – Supervisors have given the Fire Department temporary
permission to use the township’s radio frequency, but firefighters said they
won’t go back on the channel until they get approval from the Federal
Communications Commission.
Citing a complaint from “the township,” the FCC recently ordered the
Fire Department and ambulance off the township-licensed frequency, saying
neither had permission to use it.
Firefighter Joseph Aliciene said the township faxed the temporary approval
to the fire station on Thursday afternoon. But the township Ambulance
Association did not receive any notification from the township granting
temporary approval, said association officer Mark Simko.
Aliciene said the permission from the township is temporary. The fax from
supervisors said the township wants the Fire Department to apply to the FCC
for its own frequency.
Firefighters are drafting a letter to the FCC to make sure they won’t face
threatened fines if they begin using the channel again.
Aliciene said the department also will ask for more time to file a response
to the FCC’s Jan. 20 order to get off the frequency. The Fire Department was
told to respond in writing within 10 days after the order.
Township supervisors continue to deny any knowledge of a township complaint
to the FCC. The FCC says it received a complaint from township Emergency
Management Agency Director Bill Alaimo about the ambulance and Fire
Department’s use of the frequency, including concerns that the emergency
services were interfering with the Public Works Department, which also uses
the frequency.
Alaimo insists his only involvement was answering the FCC investigator’s
questions about the Ambulance Association’s use of the frequency. And Alaimo
said supervisors know about the FCC investigation because he gave them written
notification about his discussion with the FCC around September 1990. He said
he presented his letter to township Secretary James Thomas.
Emergency personnel say they need the radio channel to relay crucial
details about accidents and fires to other township emergency crews, and they
cried politics because they said the township gave them permission to use the
line more than a decade ago.