New Pall Mall Tower Brings Emergency Comms Coverage Up To 85 Percent

Fentress County’s 911 communications will see an improvement following the completion of a new tower in Pall Mall.

County Executive Jimmy Johnson said the county contributed 60 percent, the E-911 Department 35 percent, and the school board covered the remaining. He said that now the equipment is upgraded and new pieces purchased, they have five communications towers in total across the county.

“I think we’re at now about 80 to 865 percent coverage which is a lot better to where we were at, about 50 to 60 percent coverage,” “So we’re very happy and it was a much-needed thing.”

Johnson said it could be difficult to fully cover the remaining 20 percent with all of the mountains and valleys in the county. He said the coverage acts similarly to how cellphones drop certain areas of coverage.

“So you might be able to talk as long as you’re on top of the mountain, but then you get down into the valley there is a hard time receiving calls,” Johnson said. “And it really was a dangerous situation. If you’re there and you need some help or you can’t get to them, or someone’s hurt and you can’t get it out on your radio.”

Johnson said the county had previously made an agreement with Byrdstown to use its water tower. He said they ended up having to go a different route when they realized the system would be too high.

“About probably another 100 or 150 feet in the air when you got on top of the water tower on top of the mountain,” Johnson said. “So this is going work out really well it sure is.”

Johnson said in total the three entities invested about $100,000 into the project. He said that includes the tower, new repeaters, and upgraded radio.