By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Police radios in New Boston are about to get a stronger signal, thanks to a federal grant.

The police department has been awarded a $23,000 federal grant to support communications infrastructure, Chief Christopher Krajenka said.

The grant money is awarded from the the Department of Homeland Security under the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program and dispersed through the New Hampshire Department of Safety, Krajenka said.

The money will be used to purchase a radio repeater, which will be placed on the transmitting tower at the Air Force tracking station on Chestnut Hill Road near the Joe English Reservation.

The repeater will boost the signal officers receive on their radios, Krajenka said.

“This is going to strengthen our signal and allow our officers to communicate with neighboring agencies more effectively,” said Krajenka, noting that the town’s police radios often lose their signals in the hills and valleys of the local landscape.

“There’s nothing worse than being on a traffic stop and finding you’ve lost your radio signal,” Krajenka said.

“When we get toward the town line, we start losing our signal entirely,” he said.

The repeater will also strengthen the signal officers receive from neighboring agencies, Krajenka said.

New Boston officers currently pick up signals from police departments in Milford, Lyndeborough, Weare, Francestown and Hillsborough, as well as the the county sheriff departments of Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham and Cheshire, plus the New Boston highway and fire departments and state police, Krajenka said.

A burglary last November in Francestown illustrates the need for strong interagency communications, Krajenka said. That call involved work with several neighboring departments, and resulted in a chase all across Francestown and New Boston and ending in a stop in the town of Hillsborough, he said.

“The ability to communicate clearly with other agencies on emergency operations is invaluable,” Krajenka said.

There are a few steps police must take before purchasing the repeater, Krajenka said. These include a public hearing for selectmen to accept the grant money, which will take place on May 15, Krajenka said. The police department must also purchase a $750 license from the Federal Communications Commission, and officers must take an online course and test to show they are familiar with the National Incident Management System. This system, the NIMS, under the Department of Homeland Security, establishes guidelines on how emergency personnel respond to incidents of mass casualty, national disasters and terrorist incidents.

Following the steps leading up to the purchase, along with the equipment installation, Krajenka said the repeater could be working by September.