By Kathleen Acuff
 The city proposes to remove the communication tower atop the police station and erect a 100-foot microwave tower nearby. |
Old point-to-point technology may rule the airwaves when the next big earthquake or other disaster disrupts Bay Area communications.
Los Altos officials plan to erect a microwave monopole in the civic center for direct communication with other public agencies.
Last week, the city council unanimously approved the city’s participation in the regional E-Communication Project. Councilmembers authorized removing the communication tower on the roof of the Police Department and reinstalling the antennas and cabling in a monopole at an estimated cost of $25,000. They also authorized $25,000 in annual maintenance fees to keep the technology in a state of readiness.
The need for line-of-sight transmission to and reception from local cities will determine the tower’s height, now estimated at 100 feet. The tower is to go between the police station and History House, near the oak tree in the garden. The council decided to refer the plan to the Architecture and Site Review subcommittee on hearing neighbors’ concerns about safety and esthetics.
After several neighbors of the police station protested at the Feb. 28 council meeting that the city had given them insufficient notice of the tower plan, the council agreed to hold a public hearing that will be advertised 10 days in advance to residents within 500 feet of the proposed site. Some councilmembers said they would walk through the neighborhood and talk with residents April 24.
Emergency preparedness
Approximately $9,360 in grants accepted by the council last month is helping to stock the city’s emergency response trailer, train emergency response volunteers and prepare in other ways for emergencies. Police Chief Bob Lacey said last week that the trailer is now 95 percent stocked with supplies having a shelf life of 30 to 40 years.
The trailer holds 10 50-person and 10 25-person trauma bags, bandages, splints, shovels, pry bars, fire axes, ropes, hand-cranked lighting and radios and other equipment. The city does not stockpile food and water for residents.
Volunteers are prepared to operate ham radios at these response sites: Almond, Covington, Loyola, Montclaire, Oak, St. Simon and Santa Rita elementary schools; Egan Junior High; Los Altos High; and the Town Crier, 138 Main St.
Community Service Officer Rod Sayre said, “The idea is when people go to the meeting place, the ham operators can pass on information to the (emergency officer in charge at the police department) on the status of their neighborhoods. The (officer) can then prioritize the response to the various areas in need of help. In the event of a major earthquake, both phones and cell phones may not be in operation, so we depend on the hams for communication citywide.”
Staffing pressure
Lacey said last week, “We have 11,000 homes. Ten thousand will need help, but no one will be at the station to answer the phone.”
Only one city police officer resides in Los Altos. Lacey lives in Cupertino. Most officers live in San Jose, but some live in the East Bay, as far away as Fairfield and Sonora. They work 12-hour shifts, and generally no more than four officers are on duty at night.
At a meeting last week of the Citizens Corps Council, the city’s advisory group on emergency preparedness, member Wynne Satterwhite said Los Altos needs “a paid position, not a volunteer, to keep this going.”
Satterwhite, the principal of Los Altos High, said, “Volunteerism only goes so far, then people burn out.”
City Manager Phil Rose said last month that the city “probably won’t hire even part-time staff to coordinate” emergency preparedness and response efforts. The city has only half the number of full-time employees it had eight years ago, he said.
“We’d like a position, you bet. Do we see the dollars to do it? No,” he said.
