SOUTH PORTLAND – On the afternoon of July 17, first responders were called to the scene of an emergency on Western Avenue in South Portland, where a plane piloted by 42-year-old Mark Haskell had crashed shortly after taking off from Portland International Jetport.

As personnel from both Portland and South Portland came to the scene, South Portland fire Chief Kevin Guimond said, communication between the departments was strained because of the different equipment being used. Only a few of his firefighters, Guimond said, had access to the 800 MHz in use by the Portland squad. Instead, they were using older VHF technology.

Now through funding from a $1.2 million federal Port Security Grant, which Portland received in 2008 to improve communication in and around the Port of Portland, officials in Portland and South Portland hope that becomes a problem of the past now that police officers and firefighters in the two cities will be communicating on the same frequency.

Last week, the South Portland City Council approved nearly $325,000 for the purchase of new 800 MHz radios for the police department. At a previous meeting, on Oct. 7, the council approved a request for just under $300,000 for the city’s fire department. Most of the cost of the radios will be reimbursed through the grant.

The technology, said Portland fire Chief Fred LaMontagne, allows multiple departments or individuals to patch into and communicate on one frequency.

“The 800 MHz is important because it allows an increased degree in flexibility not only between the two cities, but with our key stakeholders such as the U.S. Coast Guard, Maine Marine Patrol, or even individual lobster boats in the harbor,” he said.

He said the technology could help in the case of incidents that deserve a large-scale emergency response.

Such an example, he said, could be a fuel spill in Casco Bay or Portland Harbor in which it would be crucial for the Portland Police Department, Portland Fire Department, South Portland Police Department, South Portland Police Department, Maine Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Coast Guard all to communicate frequently and effectively to mitigate the disaster.

The new radios, said South Portland police Chief Googins, would have helped in the response to an incident on Oct. 16 when a South Portland woman jumped from atop the Casco Bay Bridge.

In that case, the emergency responders from Portland and South Portland could not communicate officer to officer, Googins said, but had to rely on relaying messages back and forth through the dispatch center. Portland police were finally able to reach and rescue the woman, 20-year-old Amanda Mason, through the help of a fishing boat.

South Portland sought out the technology, LaMontagne said, following the frequent disaster drills area emergency professionals hold regarding security at Portland Harbor and the Portland International Jetport.

“It is out of these drills and exercises that we’ve found communication issues and the need that have a more flexible communication system,” he said.

The city of Portland will reimburse South Portland $243,411 of the cost of the police radio systems from the grant. The remainder, $81,137, will come from South Portland’s 2010 Capital Improvement Project 800 MHz Radio Account. Similarly, $223,087 of the $297,450 cost for the fire department’s radios will be paid out of the grant. The remainder, $74,362, will come out of the aforementioned CIP radio account.

When South Portland police and firefighters receive the radios, Guimond said there will be training with Portland to get South Portland official familiar with the new operating system.

Googins said the reason for the two-year delay from the time the Port Security grant was awarded and the funding for the radios approved was due to the fact the money was frozen until a federal environmental impact study could be completed for a new tower the Portland Fire Department was installing.

The new tower, LaMontagne said, will replace an existing tower or similar size and scope that is on top the Munjoy Hill Fire Station. Tha review, he noted, does not substitute the environmental review which is done on the local level.

Googins said he received confirmation last week from Lisa Perrotta, grant writer for the Portland Police Department, that the radio requests were ready to be approved by the South Portland City Council.

Googins said the money will allow the department to purchase a portable 800 MHz VHF radio for each of the force’s 55 officers, plus the animal control officer. The department, which deals with more than 34,500 calls for service every year, will also purchase six 800 MHz radios for other members of the police force, including park rangers, 20 mobile units to be mounted in the cruisers and two VRS, or vehicle repeaters, used to boost the signal, for each supervisor vehicle.

Guimond said his department has also placed an order for 55 portable radios as well 22 for each of the city’s fire trucks and ambulance vehicles.

“What it will allow us to do is be able to talk radio to radio, or vehicle to vehicle and put us into talk groups for events,” Googins said. “The reason this is being funded through the Port Security Fund is because since we share a port, when we have an incident, it requires resources and response from both sides of the port.”

For the South Portland Fire Department, the new radios, which Guimond expects to receive in six to eight weeks, mean a better, more updated communication system for the department, which responded to 4,318 emergency calls for service in fiscal year 2009.

Guimond said the radio technology will increase reliable communication coverage in large buildings such as the Maine Mall, Cumberland County Civic Center or oil tankers near the harbor.

“Communication is the key to every emergency response operation,” he said. “Portland does a great job responding and we are excited to be part of that.”

The new radios will give both firefighters and police officers in the two cities up to a dozen channels to operate on, which will allow many more people to be part of a radio conversation.

“This is a real big upgrade for public safety in the city,” Guimond said.

The fire and police departments, Googins said, will still be communicating with Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth using VHF technology, since both towns are still using the VHF system.

In fact, with the exception of Portland, every community South Portland emergency workers communicate with uses VHF. He said 800MHz radios have only come to be used for emergency communication in the last decade or two. The Portland Fire Department, for example, has been using the technology since 1999.

“What we have to do now,” Googins said, “is balance communication with Portland with our ability to communicate with Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth and everywhere else that uses VHF, which is a pretty consistent band.”