Commission approves county purchase of texting unit to improve emergency alerts after paging lapses

Commissioners approved county purchase and installation of a local SMS/text gateway — described in the meeting as a “TAB Electronics” unit — to retransmit radio paging tones as SMS text messages to volunteers and responders who do not reliably receive existing page‑to‑text messages.

Fire chiefs and dispatch personnel reported that the county’s current page‑to‑text path (which routes through a third‑party gateway) has been inconsistent: volunteers sometimes receive pages hours late or not at all, which creates response problems for rural fire and ambulance services. Baker Fire had purchased one such TAB unit privately and reported reliable results; Carter County staff proposed buying a unit for the county so paging tones from dispatch would be picked up locally and broadcast as SMS to group lists.

TAB Electronics stated the gateway can send about 30 SMS per minute and can be configured to host multiple responder groups; the county can place different responder lists on separate SIMs or modems if volume requires scaling. Commissioners discussed whether 9‑1‑1 would reimburse the purchase; the 9‑1‑1 board meets June 11 and might provide reimbursement. The county approved initial procurement and agreed to fund the unit from rural fire funds if the 9‑1‑1 board does not reimburse. County staff said the unit could be installed and operational within days.

Ending: The county will install a TAB gateway to improve emergency paging reliability; staff will seek 9‑1‑1 reimbursement and will return auction/usage results to the commission.