The Prudential Committee is exploring how to reduce the cost of false alarms.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Fire Department is trying out new technology officials hope will help firefighters stay connected.

At December's monthly meeting of the Prudential Committee, which oversees the fire district, Fire Chief Craig Pedercini told the body about "I Am Responding," an app designed to let emergency services contact their people through phones and allow the first responders to notify the base that they are on their way to the scene of an emergency.

"Essentially, it's a supplement to our pagers," Pedercini said. "What it would do is when the dispatcher puts out tones and a message for a call, the guys who do have cell phones — smart phones or regular phones — will get a text message that we have a call, and it might say motor vehicle accident or structure fire.

"The idea is to catch people who might be at Walmart in North Adams or down at the mall."

Pedercini said the department is conducting a two-month free trial of the service, which would cost $600 for three years or $800 for five years if the district decides to keep it.

He said that the I Am Responding app is becoming increasingly popular around the commonwealth. Locally, it is in use in Dalton, Lanesborough and Stamford, Vt., Pedercini said.

"A number of the departments I've talked to are doing it, and they say it works well," he said. "I'm just not a techie guy."

The three-person Prudential Committee gave its blessing to the initiative.

"The idea is, with the problems we're having with portables receiving [pages] at this point in time, this fills in that gap," committee member Ed Briggs said. "It makes sense."

Chief Craig Perdercini received permission to try out an app that alerts firefighters to calls.

In other business at the Dec. 17 meeting, the committee discussed efforts to accommodate a Church Street resident who complained about excessive light from a street lamp in front of her residence.

The fire district — which is responsible for street lights in town — did ask the utility company to swap out the bulb once already, but the resident in question did not notice an improvement, Pedercini said.

The committee authorized him to take the next step and ask to try a lower wattage bulb, reducing from the 100-watt bulb there now to a 50-watt unit.

The committee also began a conversation about the high cost of false alarms and what the district could do to pass that cost on to residents and businesses that are the sources of repeated false alarms.

Pedercini noted that the town bylaw adopted by 2004's annual town meeting allows the town to fine burglar alarm users $100 per false alarm for their third and fourth false alarm in a calendar year starting July 1 and to fine them $300 and revoke their alarm license after the fifth offense.

The district - a separate governmental entity apart from town government - would need to adopt its own rule, as the town law specifically deals with signals "designed to discourage crime."

Committee member Ed McGowan told his colleagues that while discouraging false alarms is important, the district also wants to be careful that it not encourage people to pull their alarm systems altogether.

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