When television stations switch over to digital broadcasts on Feb. 17, Duluth firefighters may go out and help residents who didn't properly make the upgrades and find they're just watching static.
That's drawing the ire of three Duluth city councilors, who call that a waste of the department's time.
"We just stuck the people in the city of Duluth with a 9 percent property tax increase, and part of that was a special levy for the Fire Department," Councilor Todd Fedora said during Thursday night's agenda session. "It'd be hard for me to believe that people would be supportive of that levy increase if they knew firefighters were going to go out and install digital television converters."
Councilors Jay Fosle and Jim Stauber also question that as a use of firefighters' time, with Stauber calling it "a bit bizarre."
But Duluth Fire Chief John Strongitharm defended it, saying the money spent will come from a $10,000 grant given by a national outreach organization trying to ensure the TV switch was correctly made and is specifically targeting seniors.
ADVERTISEMENT
He said firefighters would be called only as a last resort, and that the program was modeled after a test project in Wilmington, N.C., which made the switch last year. That city's Fire Department went out to only about a dozen homes, Strongitharm said. He said before firefighters went to a home, they would try to talk through issues over the phone with residents having a problem converting their televisions.
Duluth Chief Administrative Officer Lisa Potswald added that the city was involved with the project because TV is an important resource for the city to communicate with the public during an emergency.
However, if the Fire Department is receiving too many calls for assistance, "we'll have to re-evaluate it," she told the council.
"But this is a way of helping the community adjust to something that's going to be confusing for some people, and it's part of our responsibility to respond to emergencies," she said.
