New radio tower worth the wait   10/2/2006 6:00 PM (WROC-TV) New radio tower worth the wait There's a stick of steel now keeping boaters safer as they ply the waters of Lake Ontario. News 8 Now's Dave McKinley reports on how it took a decade and a half of perseverance, to make it so. To most it appears as nothing more than a 60-foot stick of steel, standing along a lonely stretch of Lake Ontario shoreline. But for mariners, it is the long sought after last link in communicating between Coast Guard stations in Buffalo and Rochester. Because for the longest time, the lack of something like it, left boaters in potentially dire straights, should they get in trouble in the areas north of Devils Nose in Hamlin Beach State Park. "It was very iffy if a boater got in trouble in that area whether they could reach help either from Buffalo or the station Rochester from their boat radio," says Ann Roller of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. Despite the apparent need, the Coast Guard was unable to rectify the situation. "They have a limited budget, it's maybe one-tenth what other military has. They have so many other needs that a radio tower on the shores of Lake Ontario doesn't rank up as high as national security," says Roller. So members of the Hamlin Flotilla of the Us Coast Guard Auxiliary decided they'd do something about it. "Well, we all come from different backgrounds, we're a pretty diverse group," says Peter Urgola of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary.           So they scrounged parts: "The tower itself, the wiring the coupling," says Roller.         And raised the money, and raised the tower, themselves. "And they kept pushing year after year and one little thing would get done one year and then they'd push again and another thing would get done the next year," says Roller. It took them 15 years but, by golly, they got it done. "Slow but sure, like the tortoise!" says Roller.       So perhaps this is indeed more than a tower of steel...it could well be a monument of sorts, to a dedicated group of volunteers who come heck--or high water--were determined to put something back in to the community. "And I think for the most part that's the motivation for all the folks that ultimately join the auxiliary, is to put something back into the community," says Urgola. Most boaters have cell phones, but the coast guard auxiliary says they can't replace ship to shore radios. For one thing, cell phones are iffy once you're out on the lake, and even you can place a call- it only reaches one party, whereas an S.O.S. put out over a radio frequency could reach any number of other boaters--or auxiliary members who may be listening in from shore.

The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is a volunteer service organization which is open to anyone who is 17 and older. The Auxiliary mission is to help the United States Coast Guard in any way except where prohibited by statute such as in direct law enforcement and military actions.

The Auxiliary primary goals are to do vessel safety checks, public education, and search and rescue. The Auxiliary also performs many other missions including participating in most of the United States Coast Guard missions.

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