Carter County has not transitioned to this system yet, and are still using their conventional networks. They still have to build out the new sites to use the TACN. Also, EPD, and EFD do have DMR, and EPD does run encryption sometimes. But as to them being on the TACN, ...
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From an article in the
Johnson City Press:
ELIZABETHTON — The Elizabethton City Council unanimously took steps Thursday night to join the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network.
This system will eventually allow the city’s police, fire and other emergency departments to communicate with other state and local agencies from Mountain City to Memphis. Just as important as the statewide communication, the network will also provide more effective communication between the emergency units of the city of Elizabethton and those of Carter County.
While the statewide system has been established for many years, there will be some expensive adjustments the city must make to allow the communications to reach every part of the city. The problem is to provide an additional antenna so the system will be able to reach inside many buildings in the city. There will also be additional costs to provide the city’s emergency departments with new radios.
The county has also been transitioning to the statewide system and it also has to make additional investments in infrastructure to allow communications to reach the mountainous sections of Roan Mountain, Poga and Elk Mills.
To cover some of the costs, the council’s deliberations on Thursday night were focused on a resolution to accept a $2 million grant from the Tennessee Violent Crime Intervention Fund that will provide the funding for needed radio coverage in the city. It will also provide for the purchase of 35 new radios. This grant requires no matching funds. Elizabethton City Manager Daniel Estes said two-thirds of the proceeds of the grant will go toward equipment costs and expenses for the radio antenna, while the remainder would fund some of the radios the city’s emergency departments will require.
The city already has an antenna on Paty Hill, but a taller antenna is needed. The Paty Hill property is too small to allow a taller tower. Communications experts determined a 190-foot-tall cell tower on Jackson Avenue could do the job. By renting space on the tower, some upfront costs will be reduced, but there will be recurring costs in the future.
In addition to the lease payments, the city will also be required to pay the costs of electricity, propane, maintenance costs for the backup generator and site insurance premiums. After the first two years, the city will be required to pay annual costs of $34,800, with a 2% annual increase for 15 years. The total annual payments to Crown Castle Co., the owner of the Jackson Avenue tower, over the 15 years would be $601,810.95. Due to equipment delivery time and the project construction timeline, it will be 12 to 18 months before the system will be up and running.
In addition to the 35 radios that will be purchased through the grant, the city will have to purchase a large number of new radios, with a total costs of $814,159.96. This amount includes 84 radios in vehicles at $4,999 each, for a total of $419,922.72. An additional 76 handheld radios will be required at a cost of $4,569.16 each, for a total of $347,256.16. Nine base radio stations would be required at $5,220.12 each, for a total of $46,981.08.
Elizabethton Police Chief Jason Shaw told the council his staff was continuing to work on finding additional grants to fund the transition to TACN. Shaw said “this is something that is very important to us, especially now that the county is in the process of going (to TACN).” Elizabethton Fire Chief Barry Carrier is also seeking grants for fire departments in the process of upgrading their communications equipment.
Carrier provided the most vivid reason for the existence of TACN. He described the experience of his firefighters when they deployed to Gatlinburg to fight the 2016 forest fires. He said firefighters from many agencies responded, but he said no one could talk to each other because everyone used different frequencies and radios. He said the same problem was experienced in Elizabethton when the North American Rayon plant caught fire and firefighters from around the area provided mutual aid. He said the emphasis on making sure all emergency responders could communicate with each other goes back to the 9-11 terrorist attack.
Estes told the council “in my opinion, we can’t straddle the fence, we are going to have to do this.” Carrier said the city had a good shot at getting additional funding for fire departments, but would not know if the city will receive the additional grants until late spring or early summer.
Estes said that based on what Carrier had said, he thought that it made sense to go to the TACN system for interoperability reasons. He said city departments needed to be able to communicate with mutual-aid responders who come here to help the city and also when city departments deploy to help other cities. He said the city has an opportunity to receive $2 million now. He said he did not like that the full cost was not met by the grant, but there was still time to seek additional funding opportunities.
There were additional resolutions unanimously approved by the council authorizing the approval of the state TACN contract with Motorola, which provides the equipment for the network. The council also authorized a lease contract with Crown Castle.
In other matters, the council gave approval for city staff to apply for a federal grant of $4,824,778 “to improve and enhance the safety, security, and aesthetics” of the downtown streets of East Elk Avenue and East E Street. The grant from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program would enable the city to carry out some of the recommendations in the city’s Downtown Mobility Plan that was completed by WSP Associates last summer."
From the posting on the previous page.
