Tate County Supervisors have given their approval for the county fire coordinator to purchase 212 MSWIN-compatible handheld and mobile radios.
The Motorola radios, which come with a price tag of $398,997, feature state and federal frequencies that will come in handy in the event of large-scale crises, according to Kim Brownlee, who also doubles as Tate County Emergency Management Director.
“Our current system will pretty much be at the end of its life after the first of the year, and the radios and equipment we are using will be obsolete because you won’t be able to find batteries or other replacement parts,” Brownlee explained. “We are the only county north of Highway 82 that hasn’t joined MSWIN.”
The Senatobia Fire & Rescue Department and Senatobia Police Department converted to the statewide MSWIN system years ago.
MSWIN, or Mississippi Wireless Information Network, was designed with a simple, straightforward objective of getting correct information to the right people, in the right place, at the right time. The system provides 97 percent mobile area coverage statewide via multiple sites and is the only statewide interoperable emergency communication voice and data network available for use by both state and local public safety entities.
Brownlee said Tate County’s conversion to MSWIN has several advantages.
“We have to buy radios but we won’t have to worry about the upkeep of our system anymore. That’s the state’s problem,” he pointed out. “They have towers from one end of the state to the other, including two in Tate County.”
Each radio will feature two-tone paging in order to appropriately dispatch county volunteer fire departments in the event an emergency.
Brownlee said getting radios into the hands of proper personnel would enhance response times and compatibility with the MSWIN system should help alleviate communication problems that have plagued local fire departments for years.
Once they are switched over, all of Tate County’s fire departments and other emergency personnel will be on the same radio communications network as the Tate County Sheriff’s Department, Senatobia Police Department, the Tate County Emergency Management Agency, and Mississippi Highway Patrol.
Currently, area fire departments can’t communicate with these agencies via radio. Using MSWIN would allow local firefighters to contact any other MSWIN users from across the state.
“This is particularly valuable when responding to large-scale emergencies involving multiple departments from both inside and outside the area,” Brownlee added.
