Saugus article would charge $200 alarm system fee

SAUGUS – Private businesses seeking to connect to the town’s wireless Fire Department Municipal Radio Box alarm system may be forced to pay a $200 fee if Town Meeting approves an article put forth by Deputy Chief Michael Newbury.”We went from hardwire to radio alarms and it costs tens of thousands of dollars ? but it’s starting to show wear and tear,” Newbury told the Board of Selectmen during a recent meeting.Newbury asked the board to place an article on the warrant for the next special Town Meeting that if approved would allow the department to charge businesses a fee for having a direct line to the department.Town Manager Scott Crabtree explained that the radio boxes owned by participating commercial businesses ring directly through to the Fire Department if there is an emergency.”When we went to the radio boxes there should have been a fee for service,” he said. “The system is going to be seven years old and that system has to be maintained and upgraded.”Former Chief James Blanchard decided in 2005 to switch the town to wireless alarm boxes. He said at the time, the old system was effective but costly, required high maintenance fees from business owners and a crew to maintain the wires, which were becoming harder and harder to come by. Newbury said the intent was to charge a fee immediately beginning in 2006 but it was never enforced.The fee would not only cover the cost of upkeep to the new system but it could also help pay to dismantle the old system, which Newbury said was never removed. He said he put a bid out to have the system taken down but found it would cost $14,000 just to remove the call boxes from poles, it didn’t include pulling all the old wires down.”I took a Sawzall and cut down some of the boxes myself,” Newbury said, adding that neither National Grid nor Comcast would touch the wiring.Selectman Debra Panetta wondered if $200 was enough. Newbury said he surveyed other towns and found the average cost to businesses to tie into a town’s wireless system was $250 but he felt $200 was sufficient.”Parts break and the onus was supposed to be put onto business owners for upkeep,” he said. “Obviously if we’re into it for $20,000 in repairs this has been self-sufficient.”The board approved the request unanimously.