Village Board Authorizes Transition to Wireless Fire Alarms

La Grange Park trustees have approved a resolution to allow the fire department to enter into a seven-year agreement with ADT Security to monitor and maintain the village fire alarm system.

The vote was made with an eye toward slowly transitioning from an alarm system dependant on phone lines to a new system which will operate wirelessly. The transition will affect building owners who are currently a part of the village's fire alarm system, not residential homes. The system allows the fire department to keep continuous watch over alarms in those buildings.

Fire Chief Dean Maggos brought the issue to the board and outlined a number of advantages to transitioning to a wireless alarm system. 

"It's finally getting to small communities like ours in being cost effective," Maggos told the board during a recent workshop session Aug. 9.

The fire department currently monitors 99 alarms in the system which are connected to the village's Emergency Communication Center by phone lines. The village has a current agreement with ADT Security to monitor and maintain the alarms, which is set to expire in 2013. 

According to Maggos, while the system has worked well for the village for years, it also has many problems. The fire chief's biggest complaint was for frequent false alarms by the system. A false alarm can be triggered by storms, service work being done on phone lines, and by water seeping to the phone lines. In each occurrence, the fire department must respond, creating additional expenses for the fire department and the building's owner.

"The biggest complaint we've heard... is if the battery goes dead, you can get a trouble alarm," Maggos said.

These problems would be largely eliminated by transitioning to a wireless system, Maggos told board members.

"We're going to push everyone to switch to wireless," Maggos said, adding that in another 1-2 years the department would ask for a change in village fire code to require the new wireless alarms in each building.

The change will be good for building owners as well, the fire chief pointed out, by allowing them to get rid of the additional phone line, and the costs associated with it. Building owners will be given 120 days to make the switch, or will be subject to an additional fee for remaining with the old system. 

In deciding to stick with ADT Security, the fire chief told the board that purchasing the system outright would be more than the village had funds for. Allowing ADT to continue to monitor and maintain the system would not mean increased revenue for the village, but was better in the long run, Maggos said. 

ADT will supply all the required equipment to the village and to building owners, and will be responsible for any repairs and maintenance, which they will be required to do within 48 hours of a request. 

The monthly charge for building owners is expected to be about $75 a month. Building owners were largely paying $100 or more with the old system, Maggos said. A $150 connection fee will also add to those costs, but if building owners make the transition within the 120 day window, the fee will be waived.

The La Grange board of trustees unanimously approved the request.