The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security is proposing the installation of a new emergency communication tower on Renegade Mountain to improve handheld radio coverage for first responders and utility workers.
Cumberland Plateau Water Authority General Manager Jeff Dyer said the state agency presented the proposal to the authority board because the prospective site is owned by the utility. Dyer said the location meets specific criteria for handheld communication services, which require significantly more towers than standard cellular networks to maintain a proper coverage area.
“When cell service drops in an area, especially in emergency situations this would allow first responders and utilities to still communicate by handheld radio and Renegade Mountain was selected as a potential site that fit all the criteria to help them for an area that needs a new tower,” Dyer said.
Dyer said the project is currently in the preliminary discussion phase and no formal agreement has been reached to construct the tower. Dyer said the state must still navigate several regulatory stages, including checking for Homeowners Association restrictions on Renegade Mountain and obtaining Federal Aviation Administration clearance regarding the height of the structure.
“They came in to ask is if they could explore options on that property and again it’s so early we we have limited information about this at this point and by no means is there a an agreement to put a tower up,” Dyer said. “This this was the very beginning steps of is there a possibility to explore this site.”
Dyer said the board voted to keep discussions open and allow the state to return with more specific details. Dyer said the utility would not experience any impact on water usage or operations if the tower is eventually built on the property.
“They didn’t say, ‘No we’re absolutely against this,’” Dyer said. “There’s just needs to be a lot more information and that’s all they were asking for because they they don’t want to go do a tremendous amount of work if there’s not even a possibility of the the location working either.”
Dyer said the state will now focus on planning, design, and engineering steps to determine the feasibility of the Renegade Mountain site. Dyer said the water authority has not yet been involved in discussions regarding how the tower might affect nearby residents who live on the mountain.
In separate business, Dyer said the Cumberland Plateau Water Authority is moving forward with the purchase of new payroll and human resources software to consolidate administrative functions. Dyer said the utility currently manages a broad mixture of timekeeping methods, ranging from physical time clocks to paper cards, following the merger of three different utilities.
“Well twofold, it’s simplicity for the employees and it’s the efficiencies on the operations side,” Dyer said. “Less labor involved and more transparency for employees for timekeeping, vacation reporting, requesting time off, pay structures, pay stubs.”
Dyer said the utility spent six weeks reviewing multiple platforms before selecting a software based on its technology, pricing, and services. Dyer said the transition is designed to streamline internal workflows and simplify the reporting process for the office staff.