Lee Erwin reporting
lerwin@clarksvillenow.com
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – City officials unveiled Clarksville’s new $7 million emergency radio system Wednesday, June 4 at the Montgomery County E-911 Center downtown. The system which has been in the works for over a year and undergoing testing for the past few weeks went operational Wednesday morning at midnight.
Mayor Kim McMillan, Police Chief Al Ansley and Fire Rescue Chief Mike Roberts talked about the new system which will greatly increase response times and communication capabilities for public safety personnel in the city.
Chief Ansley said the new Motorola system is top of the line and way surpasses what was in place. “The product, the vendor, the support system that we have in place, I think is by far if not the best is equivalent to anybody in the state,” said Ansley.
Ansley added that the clarity of the new communication system is outstanding and the dead spots in some areas of the city in the past have been eliminated. The new system now in place is expected to cut down on response times for those people who are in need of help.
Chief Roberts spoke about the new radio system and said it was one of the best you could possibly have. “The important thing about that for public safety, it is our lifeline. Now we have the best lifeline that we can have both for police officers and firefighters,” Roberts said.
Roberts also talked about the city dispatch system for Clarksville Fire Rescue and said for the past three weeks a new system has been in place to dispatch firefighters. In the past when citizens called 911 to report a fire the firefighters and fire equipment were sent out through a firefighter in the downtown fire station.
That firefighter who was manning the dispatch room would then contact the various fire stations in the city to respond to the emergency. When a call comes in to 911 now it goes immediately to the city dispatch which send the information straight to the fire stations which Roberts said has cut out the middle man.