Public Safety Communication Improves in Perry County

It was a project three years in the making, Perry County unveiled a new AT&T cell tower Tuesday.

To improve public safety, the tower was just a small part of Perry County’s new public safety radio communications system.

“It turns out we were trying to figure out a way to rebuild our infrastructure for public safety communications, at the same time AT&T was beginning to look for an 4G LTE tower, and it turns out it was on state property,” said Program Director for Perry County 911, Brent Runge. “We all got together and sat down for about the last two-and-a-half years actually, and our thought was to combine everything and make it a central location so we all can share the benefit and plus share the cost, so it turns out it’s a win-win for everyone.”

The county now has a new, modern, state of the art communications system, that will not only benefit AT&T customers in the area, but more importantly those working in the the public safety workforce, including first-responders.

“Everyone in the county will benefit from it, county residents that have AT&T service will have better phone service, our state troopers on the MARCS radio system have much better coverage in and around New Lexington, and probably from a public safety standpoint, the biggest difference will be for Randy Barker’s sheriff’s department and the local police department and the local fire services and so forth on the system, because literally this provides portable radio coverage in the highly populated area of Perry County,” said Program Director of the Ohio Multi-Agency Radio Communication’s System, Daryl Anderson.

Anderson said Perry County has guaranteed upgrades on its public safety radio system through 2039.