BNSF deal to improve emergency communications

Radio communications on U.S. 2 along the southern border of Glacier National Park can be spotty.

But that should soon change.

BNSF Railway will provide telecommunications services to a consortium of local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies in northern Montana, according to the terms of a deal signed Tuesday in Whitefish.

The railroad has access to areas where local emergency response agencies - because of distance or geography - don't have radio coverage.

And leasing the railroad's communications infrastructure in those hard-to-reach areas would greatly improve the capabilities of local emergency response agencies to communicate with each other and their units.

"It's a real win/win for public safety in Montana," said Chris Christensen, chief of Montana's Public Safety Services Bureau.

The bureau brokered the deal between the railroad and the Northern Tier Interoperability Consortium, a partnership involving the 12 counties and four Indian reservations of northern Montana.

According to the agreement, the BNSF Railway will:

. Serve as the manager for the Big Mountain communication site as authorities upgrade the antenna there.

. Supply access, towers, generators, and equipment shelters at the Blue, King, and Pinkham Mountain communication sites in Lincoln County.

. Provide coverage on U.S. 2 below Glacier National Park by building between five and seven radio towers connected to the fiber-optic lines that run alongside the company's railroad tracks.

"This partnership with BNSF provides a marvelous opportunity to improve communications technology so that first responders can easily speak to each other in the event of an emergency," said Glacier County Sheriff and Northern Tier Interoperability Consortium chairman Wayne Dusterhoff.

In return for use of its telecommunication services, the railroad will receive $500,000 from the state over five years.

Both railroad and state officials called that price "a substantially discounted rate."

"Safety is a top priority at BNSF," railroad spokesman Gus Melonas said. "We are particularly pleased to be a part of the solution to improve radio communications in Western Montana."

For Flathead County Sheriff's deputies patrolling the 40 miles of U.S. 2 where radio coverage is spotty to nonexistent, the deal will mean the ability to talk to dispatchers, request resources, check for warrants and return status checks, Flathead County Undersheriff Pete Wingert said.

Radio coverage along the U.S. 2 corridor should improve service in that part of the county, Wingert said.

"Obviously communication is a large part of our job," he said.

The Montana Public Safety Services Bureau was budgeted $12 million this year to improve police communications in northern Montana, $3.5 million of which was allocated by the Legislature in 2005, Christensen said.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com