Cheshire County receives $936K Congressional Directives grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration

Advanced ems/fire radio network equipment - the county of cheshire, New Hampshire, requests $936,000 in community project funding/congressionally directed spending (cpf/cds) construction funds from HRSA (HRSA-26-107) for a three-year project (09/01/2026–08/31/2029) to modernize seven sites of a critical, aging emergency communications network serving southwestern New Hampshire. The subgrantee, southwestern New Hampshire district fire mutual aid ("fire mutual aid"), owns and operates the regional land-mobile radio network that dispatches and coordinates all ems and fire response for 29,710 calls in 2025 alone and for nearly 98,000 residents across 38 municipalities and 1,131 square miles, including remote lakes, mountains, and forestland with little or no cellular coverage. This cpf/cds award will fund one component of a larger, phased network modernization. Fire mutual aid's current system is 15–20 years old, unsupported by its manufacturer, and lacks operational redundancy; equipment failures occur without warning and are difficult and slow to repair at remote, hard-to-access sites. This award will replace obsolete radio, backhaul, and network equipment at seven repeater sites with new ip-based base and redundant repeaters, antenna systems, microwave backhaul, uninterruptible and standby power, network switches and routers, and status-monitoring and alarm equipment, along with associated site electrical work. At fire mutual aid headquarters, the award will also replace failing HVAC systems that cool the network's core equipment. All equipment will be procured through the naspo/wsca cooperative contract and installed by qualified subcontractors, consistent with 2 cfr part 200 and applicable HHS requirements; no construction will begin until HRSA lifts the environmental condition through a notice of award. Upon completion, the seven HRSA-funded sites will provide restored redundancy, equipment-status monitoring, remote diagnostics, and improved physical security, reducing the time needed to detect and repair failures and strengthening mobile-to-base and mobile-to-mobile coverage for career and volunteer firefighters, emts, and paramedics. This investment in physical infrastructure directly advances hrsa's mission to protect the health and well-being of americans in medically vulnerable, rural, and underserved areas, and moves fire mutual aid closer to a fully modernized, resilient 12-site network for the region it serves. No cost share is required for this award.