HILLTOWNS — Hilltown resident Nickie Gladieux is working to find out if emergency call boxes — a fading public utility that these days is found mostly on college campuses — might be able to help the Hilltowns bridge its technology gap and connect residents with emergency services despite spotty cell reception in the rural region. 

Gladieux is active in volunteerism and is a member of the Helderberg Kiwanis. 

Cell coverage on the Hill has long been a problem, but it was only a few months ago that a local nurse spoke before the Rensselaerville Town Board about an incident where a horse was struck by a car outside of her home, and she was forced to choose between staying outside with the horse or — because she couldn’t get cell service along the road — going back inside to call 9-1-1.

“If it was a child — I mean, a horse is a precious, living being — but if it’s a human … what’s more important, calling 9-1-1 to get an ambulance or taking care of somebody?” she had asked. “I can’t do both things at once.”

While the nurse had the option of going to her phone nearby, Gladieux told The Enterprise last week that that’s not always the case when someone’s in need of assistance.

There are spots on the Berne-Knox-Westerlo campus, for instance, where cell reception is “irregular,” she said.

“There are people who will not go to the track by themselves because they’re afraid if they fall, if something happens, their cell phone doesn’t work and there’s nothing [else],” Gladieux said of the running track located behind the school. 

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Emergency call boxes are not only few and far between in the United States these days, but are actively being removed as cell phones make them less and less useful.

Call boxes along the Northway were fully decommissioned last year by State Police after declining use made the cost less viable. There were 710 wired phones when the system was first set up in the 1960s, but the number dropped to just 47 by early 2023, according to New York Alamanack. 

In New York City, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg had attempted earlier in the last decade to get rid of 15,000 of the city’s call boxes due to declining use and the fact that roughly 85 percent of calls made from them turned out to be false alarms. 

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In the Hilltowns, there are a few boxes still around, including at the Helderberg Ambulance stations in Berne and Knox. 

A box thought to be at Camp Pinnacle, in Voorheesville, does not exist, with a spokesperson there telling The Enterprise, “It is possible that there was one in the past.” Likewise with one at the Medusa park, in Rensselaerville, according to town Clerk Victoria Kraker. 

East Berne Volunteer Fire Department spokeswoman Mary Alice Molgard told The Enterprise that the call boxes are “really old technology,” and that she didn’t know “if anyone has used ours in more than a decade!” 

Gladieux told The Enterprise that, “in a perfect world,” there would be a universal icon for emergency call boxes, and that every “Welcome” sign for a town, village, or hamlet, would include this symbol with information on where local call boxes can be found. 

“Another reason this comes up is domestic violence,” Gladieux said. “If someone takes your phone, and you don’t have something set up with a neighbor, there’s no place in the Hilltowns for someone to go.”

Gladieux said she’s not so much invested in the call-box idea as she is in making sure that all residents are connected to emergency services.

So far, key authorities she’s met with include Albany County Legislator Jeff Perlee, BKW Superintendent Bonnie Kane, Knox Supervisor Russ Pokorny, and Kevin Dermarest of the Albany County 9-1-1 Call Center. 

Gladieux said that one of the ideas that came from these meetings was getting boxes sponsored by business groups until government funding becomes available.

Funding, she said, is the first big step.

“Someone could come in and sail us through this process, but that doesn’t seem to be happening,” Gladieux said. “We have to find money; we have to find product; and we have to find installers — and I think, ultimately, every call box will be specific to where it’s being installed.”