Lake County supervisors direct staff to pursue NOAA Weather Radio coverage from Mount Saint Helena

At a Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting, members agreed by consensus to ask staff to reopen negotiations and seek funding and technical analysis to place a NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) transmitter on Mount Saint Helena to fill emergency-communications gaps in South Lake County.

The item grew from reports that NWR broadcasts from Mount Saint Helena do not reach many areas on the south shore of Clear Lake, including Cobb, Middletown and Clear Lake Oaks, and that those gaps could leave first responders and residents without redundant radio information during disasters. Fire and emergency managers told supervisors a tower on Mount Saint Helena could provide redundancy for first-responder communications and collect weather data for areas currently underserved.

Chief Paul Duncan, Lake County Fire Protection District, said he supported “adding the radio up to Mount…