The Emmaus Gamewell system, installed in 1953, has come under fire by Emmaus Borough Council at recent meetings.

The Gamewell system is a series of fire notification boxes installed over 38,500 feet of copper wire running on 259 telephone poles to alarm boxes and businesses throughout the borough.

The system uses telegraph wire to create a printout of numbers corresponding to a specific alert box or location. When a box is triggered, a spring-loaded wheel taps out a signal four times to provide the precise location of the alarm.

The current system runs on three circuits, or loops of wires, running throughout the borough to hook up all of the boxes. These circuits all connect at Dispatch Answering Service, a private business contracted by the borough to run the system, contact the county in case of an emergency and have a staff on duty to respond to calls.

Council already voted to remove the boxes from the poles but they kept the boxes in the seven local businesses at the recommendation of the fire department.

"Our motion was to disconnect all of them but the seven businesses," Councilman Brent Labenberg said at the Feb. 4 council meeting. "I suggest we give [the businesses] a firm date saying this is when the service will stop and give them adequate time to replace the system."

The buildings tied into the Gamewell system include multiple high-rise living facilities and factories. The boxes are connected to the alarm and fire suppression systems of the buildings.

Emmaus Fire Chief James Reiss said the system is still effective because it reduces response time when compared to a typical alarm service.

It takes just under two minutes from the time a box is activated until firefighters know the exact location of the alert because the signal comes directly to the Emmaus Fire Department. Reiss said many other alarms alert the county first and the extra step means it takes roughly seven minutes for firefighters to receive the tones letting them know where the fire is.

"We are typically on the scene [when we get a signal from the Gamewell system] before our pagers ever go off," Reiss said.

He said those critical minutes "can truly save lives" if the event is an actual emergency.

The high rises with the Gamewell boxes installed house elderly citizens and, according to Reiss, every second of response time matters.

"The typical fire will quadruple every minute," Reiss said.

Council members said they plan to search out input from the fire department in creating a replacement system if a vote is taken to get rid of the commercial Gamewell boxes.

Borough council members said the cost of the service is one of the reasons they are considering alternatives to the system.

In previous years, the borough paid Dispatch Answering Service $455 per month for public works dispatch service and the Gamewell system. The bill was itemized as $150 for the Gamewell system and $305 for the public works dispatch.

Even though borough council voted to eliminate the public works side of the service in last year's budget, Borough Manager Shane Pepe said they are still being charged the full $455 for the Gamewell system.

Each of the seven businesses with Gamewell boxes pays the borough $400 a year to create a total revenue stream of $2,800.

While the dispatch for the Gamewell system used to cost $1,800 a year, leaving $1,000 for repairing lines, trimming trees and fixing any potential problems, it is now set to cost $5,460 a year. This means the borough would be paying $2,660 out of pocket per year to keep the aging system.

Owner of Dispatch Answering Service Jeffery Tapler, who has been operating the system for 20 years, said he was asked to itemize the bill in 1992 but $150 a month would not be enough to pay for electricity, manpower and error and omission insurance for the Gamewell system.

Tapler said there are benefits to the Gamewell boxes, especially used commercially. He said the system is backed up by a generator at his business and will function even if phone lines are down, power is out and cell phones are not getting service.

"Emmaus has always been ahead of things for years and years," Tapler said. "There is a potential for more of these [power outage] type of situations and any emergency alert service should take that into consideration."

Council members have also expressed concerns about the age of the 60-year-old system and the importance of the job it is designed to accomplish.

"This is truly one of the most antiquated systems that I have seen in a long time," Councilman Brian Holtzhafer said at the Feb. 4 council meeting. "It looks like it belongs in a museum."

They said the next step is to find out if there is a viable replacement for the Gamewell boxes in the seven businesses who are paying for the service. They are each on a one-year contract with a 90-day clause to notify of any cancellation.