A house packed with Estes Park police officers watched and applauded Thursday morning as Chief Ian Stewart swore in new Estes Park Police Commander James Westerfield.
The ceremony marking Westerfield’s joining the Estes Park Police Department was held during the July Coffee & Tea at the PD gathering at Town Hall. The new commander previously worked as a patrol sergeant and lead range officer covering District 6 for the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department.
“Since I came up here as a sergeant at the sheriff’s office five years ago, I was very pleased to work with dedicated professionals at this police department. I am humbled and honored, and hope to serve you as well as your community,” Westerfield told the assembled group.
In addition to administering the oath of office to Westerfield, officials announced a milestone more than a decade in the making. After 11 years of work to fully integrate emergency communications across multiple agencies, Estes Park’s emergency communications system is now designed to remain operational during major disasters.
Unlike the 2013 flood, when the loss of fiber-optic lines in the Big Thompson Canyon crippled communications, the upgraded regional system—operated through the Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority consortium—is expected to provide uninterrupted service.
In the 2013 incident, the area was without 911 service for 76 hours. Two years ago, a fiber cable along the same route burned, again leaving Estes Park without 911 service. Prior to the installation of the U.S. Highway 36 route, fiber cable along U.S. 34 provided the only avenue for 911 emergency communications to and from Estes Park.
Kimberly Culp, CEO of LETA and featured speaker for the morning event, described the completion of the U.S. Highway 36 Resiliency Project that provides a backup system for emergency communications with Estes Park.
“We knew Estes was very vulnerable to getting isolated, and we needed to do something to make that single line a full, complete ring,” Culp explained.
People from multiple agencies, including the City of Longmont, the Colorado Department of Transportation, Trailblazer, the Town of Estes Park, Next Light Longmont, and the Platte River Power Authority were all instrumental in LETA being able to connect the missing elements of the fiber route to provide a continuous ring from Estes Park to Fort Collins, and from Estes Park to Loveland and Fort Collins, the system’s hub, Culp said. The complete route was made possible primarily through lease agreements with the project’s participants.
It took “the right people at the right time, and the right message,” to complete the fiber route to complete a 911 loop of communications from Estes Park, Culp said.
“Everything that Kimberly and LETA have done over the last 10 years has really been tying the area to its major community, whether you’re incorporated, unincorporated, or firelock,” Police Chief Ian Stewart told the group.
Because Allenspark is in Boulder County, which is not part of the LETA system, that community is not included in the 911 communication link now available in Estes Park.