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Monday, April 3, 2023

Municipal Emergency Call Boxes at Town Halls slowly disapearing due to liabilty.

There was a time where almost every Municipality and small town   had a full time staffed Police Dispatcher at their Town Hall  where a citizen could stop in and get assistance .   But as 911 Service started rolling across the country these dispatch offices slowly started disappearing as 911 did the dispatching. 

As a result many put outside the former dispatch offices an Emergency Call Box  where you could open a box door and a auto dialing  phone or call button connected you to 911 Center .



But with the invention of the Cell Phone their relevancy was soon lost  along with fact the disappearance of POTS  Plain Old Telephone Service meant no more self powered phone lines the boxes could no longer dial properly due to digital phone lines.

and then needed back up batteries etc to keep them working during a power failure . which meant more maintenance 

This became a liability to many Municipality's who are now removing these boxes over concerns if needed they will not work properly and get sued .

I recently took one out in the North Boros for this exact reason.

now to become a museum piece  .

This means citizens are totally dependent on having access to a working cell phone in an emergency as land lines are disperaing from homes and business as well. 

The outcome there is no back up should there be an emergency and you need  911 service. 

That's the whole problem with all the new digital technology there is no back up period.

With all the bad storms we have been having not a good ideal.



Sunday, April 2, 2023

Have a Cable Dog Run? Fail to take this precaution not only could your dog loose its life you could loose your home

 Cable Runs for Dogs have been around forever . However not property installed it can be disastrous when lightning hits close to or directly on the wire. 

I was recently at a home where lightning hit a dog run and severely damaged a detached garage because there was not an insulator used to attach the wire to the garage. 


You can see where Lightning went across the wire into the garage destroyed anything electronic and then discharged down thru the foundation cracking it.

Had a simple Ceramic Insulator been used to disrupt the path of the lightning the majority of the damage could have been avoided .

The lightning charge instead would have taken the least oath of resistance which was the tree. I have even seen dog runs wire taken and pout all way to the ground and attached to a ground rod but it must be dine properly to avoid step voltage. 

A simple screw-in insulator is available most hardware and home centers in the electrical aisle and simple to install  and attach wire to so it does not make contact with the structure