Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) has been awarded a $30,000 grant to provide state of the art pagers to 17 local fire departments. The pagers are valued at about $500 each.

The county is distributing 90 pagers to first responders to help meet their goals of becoming "narrowband compliant."

The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that all public safety agencies using 25 Kilohertz (kHz) radio systems, known as wide-band, convert to 12.5, kHz narrowband channels by January 1, 2013. Agencies that do not meet the deadline face the loss of communication capabilities. In moving to narrowband operations, agencies must apply for new frequencies or modify existing licenses.

To phase into narrowband communication, the FCC has established interim deadlines. After January 1, 2011, the FCC will not grant license applications for 25kHz channels. Only narrowband authorizations will be granted.

According to EMA Director Tim Pellerin, splitting the frequencies from wideband to narrowband allows additional channels within the same space.

Lincoln County Communications is set up for narrowband communications, and is expected to go on-line with it before the end of the year.

"We are very happy to receive these pagers," said Boothbay Fire Chief Richard Spofford during a press conference last week.

"It will help with our budgets during these difficult times, and take some of the burden away from the taxpayers of Boothbay."