{"id":4300,"date":"2011-05-30T06:16:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-30T10:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4300"},"modified":"2011-06-01T08:53:50","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T12:53:50","slug":"morning-read-is-dec-comm-plan-endangering-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/05\/30\/morning-read-is-dec-comm-plan-endangering-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read: Is DEC comm plan endangering lives?"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is trying to shift dispatching duties to a central hub in Albany, as part of on-going cost-cutting measures.<\/p>\n

Late last week, Mike Lynch with the Adirondack Daily Enterprise published a must-read investigative piece<\/a> looking at internal concerns raised by forest rangers and others that the central dispatch effort could be putting them at risk.<\/p>\n

Lynch acquired internal emails sent by rangers.\u00a0 Here’s a sample:<\/p>\n

“Based on what is being demonstrated, central dispatch has no business being the life link for the rangers in the field,” forest ranger Lt. John Solan wrote in a Feb. 1 email.<\/p>\n

“We have enough examples of the inability of central dispatch to function effectively. We are very fortunate to not have examples of how central has fallen short in a true emergency. There are numerous examples of routine dispatch failures, but so far we have been lucky.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of the specific accounts of communication breakdowns are harrowing.<\/p>\n

Other problems that have occurred as a result of the switch to a central dispatch include a delay in a search-and-rescue for two elderly skiers at Garnett Hill Ski Lodge in Warren County. During the search, forest ranger Steve Ovitt called Albany for assistance but didn’t receive help. In response, Solan stepped in from Ray Brook to communicate with Ovitt.<\/p>\n

Albany dispatchers have also repeatedly mistaken Adirondack place names. Records show Lake Colden being marked down as Lake Holden, the AuSable Club being called AuSable Park and Saranac Lake being referred to as Saranac, which is a separate community 30 miles away.<\/p>\n

In one incident in April, forest ranger Pete Evans checked in with central dispatch, letting them know he was on Floodwood Road in the town of Santa Clara, checking on recreational activity in an area that is popular with paddlers and fisherman.<\/p>\n

But Albany dispatchers recorded him being on Floodburg Road in the town of Flanders Claire (not a real place), checking for suspicious activity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lynch reports that DEC officials promise<\/a> not to move forward with the planned reorganization until they’re confident that all the bugs are worked out.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that dispatch duties are fiercely controversial with local governments as well, as Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, and Franklin County have been sorting out how to handle dispatch and 911 calls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is trying to shift dispatching duties to a central […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[884],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4301,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4300\/revisions\/4301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}