Rochester Fire Department to receive full set of new radios

ROCHESTER — The Rochester Select Board unanimously voted to use $150,950 of American Rescue Plan Act funds to provide the Rochester Fire Department with a full set of new radios at a meeting on Monday, Feb. 5.

The funds will be used to purchase 15 mobile radios and 40 portable radios for the fire department.

At the meeting, the Select Board also approved the use of $12,240 in ARPA funds for eight portable radios for the Rochester Highway Department.

Rochester Fire Department Chief Scott Wiegel initially asked that the Select Board come up with an amount of ARPA funds for the Fire and Highway Departments to use on the radios.

“It was brought to my attention that [the town] can’t afford to replace all [radios] at one time,” said Wiegel.

“We had a request come before [the Select Board] for, I believe, all of your radios and that sum was $150,950,” said Select Board member Adam Murphy.

Murphy then made the motion to authorize the use of $150,950 for new radios, which was approved unanimously.

“This would bring me up to [be able to] replace all of the radios,” said Wiegel.

On Oct. 2, Rochester Fire Department received $25,000 in ARPA funds for new radios after a unanimous vote by the Select Board.

At that Oct. 2 meeting, Rochester resident and Capital Planning Committee chair David Arancio asked the Select Board that, when Weigel comes back to the board with further requests for equipment, the money should be pulled from the American Rescue Plan Act fund.