Sebastian County to upgrade emergency communication with new towers: 'It’s a safety issue'

Sebastian County is spending about $5.25 million to improve its emergency communication efforts. 

The money is coming from the American Rescue Plan Act, Sebastian County Judge David Hudson said. The county plans to build two new towers to increase the effectiveness of its mobile radios in emergency workers' vehicles and improve the use of its portable walkie-talkies. 

The two new towers will be complete in 2024. The county does not yet know when construction will begin. The group is still in the process of securing materials to build the towers, County Administrator Jeff Turner said. 

"And so with this project, it's talking about enhancing the number of towers we've got with related gear on them to make these mobiles and walkie-talkies that are a part of this communicate better," Hudson said. 

Previously:Korean War Legacy Foundation invites history teachers to implement new curriculum

More from Alex Gladden:Crystal Bridges partners with Fort Smith library for art events

The new towers will allow first responders to communicate better, which will save lives. 

“It’s life and death. It improves our ability to provide services in what could be life and death situations," Hudson said. 

It is a matter of public safety, Turner said. Sheriff Hobe Runion agreed. 

“Well currently we have many sports in the county that are completely dead," Runion said. He later added, “Really it’s a safety issue." 

When officers enter these dead zones, they let the dispatch team know. But that means that communication is cut off after that. This is not an issue that solely impacts the sheriff's office. It also impacts the roads department, the fire department as well as EMS.

“I look forward to it," Runion said about the update. "It’s long overdue, and it will be a vast improvement of what we had." 

Runion said that south of Hackett and throughout Greenwood, there are spots with no communication.

The new towers will interconnect with the towers already in place, creating a system without any gaps in it, Turner said. 

So if one tower fails, the rest can pick up the slack, Turner said. 

Both the city and state will benefit from these new towers. Both entities have towers in the region. 

"Whenever the city and county have these interlocal agreements, and they work together well that benefits all of the citizens, both communities, everybody in the county, everybody in the city of Fort Smith, so any time you can get two units of government cooperating and sharing resources and supporting one another everybody that we serve wins in that," Hudson said. 

Alex Gladden is a University of Arkansas graduate. She previously reported for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Jonesboro Sun before joining the Times Record. She can be contacted at agladden@swtimes.com.