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The Board of Mayor and Aldermen spent over $950,000 at the May 8 meeting of the city council, purchasing new vehicles for the city police and fire departments, as well as approving a contract with the statewide emergency radio system.

Vehicles purchased for the city emergency services included three Ford Interceptor SUVs for the police department, totaling at $24,106.10. The cost of these vehicles was lowered from market rate through the Tennessee Statewide Contract Instruction (SWC) and state contract with Trucker’s Lighthouse.

A vehicle was also purchased for the fire department, to replace a 2012 Ford Explorer used as a staff vehicle by the fire chief. The current Tullahoma fire chief, Kenneth Pearson, is currently acting in the capacity of interim city administrator, as appointed by the board, until a new administrator is hired. Acting Fire Chief Larry Sloan submitted the request for the purchase of a new vehicle.

The fire department obtained a quote from Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram of Columbia for a 2023 Dodge Ram 1500 pick-up truck that will come completely outfitted, with the exception of

two-way radios. The total cost of the vehicle and equipment was $52,202.95, which the department had in their budget for vehicle replacement from the last fiscal year. The currently-owned 2012 Ford Explorer will be sold by the city.

The bulk of the funds spent by the board went towards securing a contract with the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN), a statewide radio system that provides communication connectivity infrastructure for local, state, and federal first responders. With TACN, first responders, including law enforcement, fire, EMS, and healthcare providers, have reliable communications capabilities for daily operations and the ability to talk to each other to coordinate at the local, regional, and statewide level to respond in the event of an emergency or disaster.

The contract stipulates a fee of two hundred dollars per radio for the use of the TACN radio system. These fees are waived at the present time and will remain waived if radios are programmed for, and so long as radios stay programmed for, Mutual Aid Talk Groups as those are defined and determined by the State’s Director of 02-18-21 GU-RV 4 Wireless Communications. All radios purchased and used within Tullahoma will meet these requirements.

Coffee County Sheriff Chad Partin spoke with the Board of Mayor and Alderman at the Feb. 13 meeting about the importance of radio communications within the county’s emergency services. A motion was made to allocate funding through the American Rescue Plan and an amendment was made by Alderman Kurt Glick and seconded by Alderman Derick Mann to adjust the American Rescue Plan fund list by removing $800,000 from the North Jackson Streetscape Plan Improvement line and creating a new line item for a TACN Radio System for the Police, Fire, and any other City Department.

Acting Fire Chief Larry Sloan and Police Chief Jason Williams were tasked to bring forth a quote to facilitate the purchase of said radios. After fine tuning the needs of each department they were able to bring the final funding needed to $879,227.13.