Oct. 3--HENDERSON, KY-- When Henderson County's new 911 system goes live on Oct. 23 it will do so despite some known dead zones.
However, those working with the 911 upgrade committee said that even with those holes in coverage, the new system is still superior to what is in place right now.
Mike Shockley, director of Henderson County 911, told Henderson County Fiscal Court on Tuesday that Motorola Solutions, the company contracted to upgrade the system, has failed several coverage tests primarily in the Spottsville and Baskett areas.
"According to the contract with Motorola, the county has to have 95 percent of the county covered and in that coverage area, it has to work 97 percent of the time. We've tested several times and ultimately, Motorola failed the test," he said.
Motorola has agreed to install a radio tower on the water tower in Spottsville to help increase radio coverage in the Spottsville and Baskett regions, he said.
Henderson County Attorney Steve Gold said Shockley and the 911 committee negotiated with Motorola, which eventually accepted responsibility for the holes in radio coverage and moved forward with adding another radio tower to mitigate those issues. Once the installation of the tower is completed, there will be four "simulcast sites" for the 911 system in Henderson County.
"This does get the more populous areas of Reed, Spottsville and Baskett some better radio coverage," Gold said. "There will still be some holes, but a lot of those holes are in places not very well populated."
"That's correct," Shockley said. "And compared to what we have right now there is a lot better coverage than we have now. After we get all of this installed, we will have to wait for the foliage to come back, but we are going to retest the entire system. If it fails, Motorola will have to do something else to make sure that it works. We will not sign off until the system works."
Magistrate Charles Alexander asked Henderson County Sheriff Ed Brady how this situation would affect the agency's radio communication abilities in the county.
"The new system, even though it's not the percentages they want, is still so far superior to what we have now," Brady said. "We have many more coverage holes with the current system than we will the new system."
"The new system will provide a tremendous difference for us and the volunteer fire departments to be able to communicate," he said.
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