The Waynesboro City Council concentrated on improving firefighter response times throughout the city at Monday night's work session.

Firefighters in Waynesboro want to be able to switch traffic signals at intersections in times of an emergency. It's they're effort to put the "first" in "first responder".

So the River City may be purchasing a new piece of technology that's already being used by fire stations in Augusta County and Staunton. It's called the pre-emption signaling system. It sounds complex, but it isn't since it gives fire trucks the ability to control traffic signals during calls.

Gary Critzer, Director of Emergency Management, says, "It knows by which direction the truck is traveling and if it catches this light at Wayne and Broad, it knows that in about 30 seconds or less, it's going to go through Broad and Poplar, it will automatically preempt the next light."

Critzer says the technology improves public safety. Council member Frank Lucente says it may also speed up response time.

He says, "It allows the fire trucks to go through the lights, clear out the intersections before they get there and could save as much as 30 seconds to a minute on each intersection."

Lucente argues this system will improve response times for the entire city instead of the 18 percent improvement that would be provided by a West End fire station. The council is still divided.

Council member Lorie Smith says, "We have, I believe, 32 traffic signals in Waynesboro, and we've got some problematic intersections, but I do treat the issue of pre-emptive signaling as a separate issue from our West End fire station."

However, Smith does agree that the system is worth the city's attention.

She says, "The case has been made for the West End fire station. I think Council is in consensus on making sure that we get that built."

Aside from looking into this idea, council members say they'll have to prioritize each intersection in the city and judge them based on how congested they get at any given time.

Interim City Manager Mike Hamp estimates the cost for installing the technology would be $12,000 per intersection and about $1,700 for installing it on all 11 emergency vehicles.

If the council should decide to go through with getting the technology, members say they'll look into grant opportunities to fund it.