Department of Fire/Emergency Management

DFC Whitney

Kevin L. Whitney: DFC, County Car 1266

Kevin Whitney has served with the Cortlandville Fire Department in all capacities since 1987 and has been employed by the City of Ithaca Fire Department since 1996. His dedication and commitment to the fire service has availed Kevin the opportunity to serve Cortland County in duel roles. DFC Whitney was appointed to the Office of Fire/Emergency Management in 2004 and after working at the New York State Academy of Fire Science as a Region Fire Instructor, was appointed by the NYS OFPC as a SFI for Cortland County in 2006.

Assignments:

Communications

Cortland County is currently involved in transitioning from a fifty year old, VHF-low band frequency to a new UHF paging system. We are working to secure seven sites in which to simulcast the "paging" or wireless notification of all emergency incidents to the local emergency services.  We have secured two sites at this time, those being Cortland County's Virgil tower site and an antenna on private property in the Town of Marathon.  The goals is to secure additional antenna space in the Towns of Harford, Cincinnatus, Cuyler/Truxton, Cortlandville and Preble.

Our goal is to improve the paging abilities of the County immensely and eventually transition the antiquated and maintenance prone low band system to UHF.  Work is underway currently at the Virgil Tower site.  Once this is
complete, we will then move onto site #2 in the Town of Marathon.We are still actively pursuing antenna sites in the remaining areas. The County is working very close with John L. Miller, president of Miller Consultants, to accomplish this goal.

Phase two of the communications project is to continue the efforts of transitioning the fire service communications to VHF-Hi Band. Currently the fire service is the only agency in the County still operating on low band.  A Communications Advisory Board has been formed and meets monthly to continue the efforts to promote interoperability of all County agencies and specifically the integration of wireless communications.

Training

Duties include the scheduling and registering of students for all Cortland County based, NYS OFPC outreach courses. To augment the learning process of our students, Cortland County has recently committed to continuing the renovation/upgrade of the Cortland County Regional Training Center.