Othello police seek more control of traffic lights
An Opticom sensor atop a traffic light at the intersection of Third Avenue and Dogwood Street in Moses Lake.
Emry Dinman
OTHELLO — The city of Othello is looking to spend $15,000 to equip its police cars with a way to control some of the city’s traffic lights.
Speaking at an online meeting of the city council Monday evening, Othello Police Chief Phil Schenck said the department was making this late request after recently discovering that a number of the city’s traffic lights are equipped with Opticom sensors, which allow emergency vehicles to emit a radio signal or infrared strobe flash to control a traffic signal as they approach.
“We’ve done our research and the type of protocol device we need in our cars,” Schenck told council members. “There are 14 of them, at $1,100 per car, that’s about $15,000.”
The money would come from the city’s general fund, leaving an ending balance of around $90,000 unspent for 2021. The council decided to spend the $15,000 to equip its police cars rather than add to the $120,000 set aside for a new firetruck.
With that additional $120,000, Othello has saved around $600,000 to buy a new firetruck. The city is also expected to approve its overall $16.1 million 2021 budget — $5.6 million for the general fund — in December.
The Opticom system is designed by St. Paul, Minn.-based Global Traffic Technologies and gives properly equipped emergency vehicles the limited ability to control traffic lights as they approach an intersection, reducing the risk of traffic accidents, according to the company’s web page.
Schenck said the ability to have some control over traffic lights is a matter of safety, and advised that city fire vehicles and ambulances should install the control devices as well.
“One of the older ambulances already has a system on it,” he said.
Council member Corey Everett said he hopes one of the intersections equipped with the system is the intersection of 14th Avenue and Main, which is heavily used by emergency vehicles.
“I’m surprised there’s no accidents there,” he said. “Because no one can see.”
The city of Moses Lake has equipped its firetrucks but not its police cars with the system. But Fire Chief Brett Bastian said the fire department doesn’t use it since many lights in Moses Lake don’t have the sensors.
“We do have the capability, but our lights aren’t 100%,” he said.
Whether traffic lights, as they are replaced, would be upgraded to Opticom control systems, was a matter the city still needed to address, Bastian added.