By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau asked 911 Center Director Slater Liller and Director of the Tucker County Office of Emergency Management Kevin White about solutions to the various signal “deadzones” throughout the County during the July 8th Commission meeting.
“We can get a new siren tower,” Liller said. “We can get another siren tower.”
Liller went on the explain that while the State of West Virginia oversees and controls the siren towers, it is up to the County to fund the tower itself. Rosenau asked if grant funding would be available for a tower and what the cost would be for the project.
“The siren tower itself, the last time we looked at it, for the old paperwork was probably $800,000,” Liller said.
White confirmed the amount, stating that a new siren tower today can cost between $800,000 and $1 million. Liller said he was sure there were grants available to assist with the cost of construction, but he was not aware of any at the moment. However, he had an upcoming meeting where he could enquire about grant opportunities.
“If you would, start checking on grants to make sure that we’re not missing anything,” Rosenau said.
The County currently runs as high on wattage as allowed under law as to not interfere with Greenbank Observatory’s National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ). The NRQZ was established by the federal government in 1958 to minimize possible harmful interference to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank and the radio receiving facilities for the U.S. Navy at Sugar Grove. The NRQZ encompasses approximately 13,000 square miles near the state border between West Virginia and Virginia. In 2024, 10 West Virginia Counties, including Tucker County, passed resolutions petitioning for changes to the NRQZ over concerns with the restrictions on communications
“Greenbank was built so many years ago that the technology used then versus what is used now, there has to be a way that we could have more radio signal and not interfere.”
Greenbank initially couldn’t have a microwave or cellphone or other signal creating device for those living within a 50 mile limit, White said. “But that’s old technology,” White said.
Rosenau requested that White reach out for an update on where the petition stood and if there were any updates. White said that he would and would give an update at the next Commission meeting.
Rhett Dusenbury, Senior Field Representative for Representative Riley Moore, said that the subject of deadzones was recently discussed in Randolph County, as well. He informed the Commission that Randolph County solved their problem by installing Starlink in all of their vehicles. In the case of an accident, the device could be disabled on that vehicle and switched to another for a minimal charge, according to Dusenbury.
Rosenau said he wanted a more permanent solution for Tucker County. He asked Dusenbury to check to see if funding was available at the federal level to assist with a tower project. Dusenbury said that he would.
“I want something more permanent than that,” Rosenau said. “If you would check on that, we have all the fire companies, we have EMS, we have everybody that has the dead spots. I would like full communication.”
White said that the process can be costly and long. Besides the money involved, it requires land lease agreements and in some cases loans.
“There is areas that are in trouble because they went so far in debt with these tower projects,” White said. “So you have to be very careful how you handle these things. You can get in to trouble real quick.”
