Cookeville Fire Department is pursuing a grant to upgrade its radio equipment.
Chief Benton Young said that the $53,974 Assistance to Firefighters Grant will be used to purchase 50 portable radios and 12 mobile radios for vehicles.
“It’s a different frequency than what we’re currently on,” Young said. “And of course what we’re currently on is what a lot of the commercial stuff is on also. So it really gets jammed and you really can’t get any extra frequencies now. We’re all switching to a different frequency so frequencies won’t be so congested.”
Young said that the new radios would be P25 compliant, which is becoming the new standard for emergency service personnel across the board. He said that the county is planning on switching to these types of radios in the near future. He said that the grant will allow them to get ahead of the curve.
Young said that he is hopeful the grant will allow each firefighter and each truck a new P25-compliant radio.
“The 50 portable, each person has their own radio. And the 12 mobile will be for each apparatus. We currently have seven of these radios, and we ordered 7 more and haven’t gotten them in yet we ordered those in July. So we’ve already got some of them this is just going to compliment and finish off our personnel.”
Young said that they’ve applied for the grant and they hope to hear back sometime in late April.
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