Lawmakers Worry About Vermont Radio Interoperability, Communications

Members of the Vermont congressional delegation -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. -- worry about radio interoperability and communications in the northeast corner of the state. They wrote to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in November, and he explained the agency’s position on the town of St. Johnsbury, which had applied for a 100-watt license and received one for only 40. “It appears that your constituents in the Town of St. Johnsbury did not file the proper documentation to justify operating at power levels exceeding the limits currently set forth in our rules,” Wheeler replied in a March 14 letter, released this week. “Because I understand the importance of this issue to you, I encourage your constituents in St. Johnsbury to contact staff in the Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau if they need further assistance in this matter.” The town didn’t file an engineering analysis, Wheeler said. “Unfortunately, St. Johnsbury is outside the period for seeking timely reconsideration of the Bureau's decision,” he added. “However, St. Johnsbury is not precluded from filing a new application to operate a repeater on Burke Mountain. … The new application will also need to go through cross-border coordination with Canada.”