June 10, 2025
By: Dwayne Page
A site has been selected for a new state funded public safety telecommunications tower for the Liberty area.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission voted to give final subdivision plat approval for the property located on Tater Knob Road (DeKalb Emergency Communications District Division).
The purpose of the new tower is to improve emergency radio communication in that area of the county.
“This is the DeKalb County Emergency Communications District final subdivision plat creating one proposed new lot from property larger than five acres located on Tater Knob Road,” said Tommy Lee, Director of the Upper Cumberland Development District, who serves as UCDD staff planner and advisor to DeKalb County. “The proposed new lot would consist of 0.342 acres and is currently vacant. The proposed new lot would require a 28,675 square foot lot size variance and road frontage variance. Tater Knob Road is a public road not maintained by the county. It will be strictly for establishing a telecommunications tower. That’s the only thing it can be used for. It is not served by water and complies with all other DeKalb County subdivision regulations.
“Its right across the street from another communications tower in Liberty,” said DeKalb ECD 911 Director Brad Mullinax. “The only thing we really need is electrical power to it. It already has electrical power built out. The state of Tennessee is going to be building this tower. I already have a letter of intent from them. Its going to be about a two-million-dollar investment in Liberty. Its an imperative thing for emergency communications,” said Mullinax.
Original plans were to erect a 300-foot tower on the grounds of the Liberty Fire Station, which is jointly owned by both the towns of Liberty and Dowelltown but under a long-term lease with the county for use by the fire department and EMS. However, those plans were changed when in November the Liberty town council voted against erecting a tower on the site.
Jeff Gray, Director of the Tennessee Advanced Communication Network explained last fall that this new tower is needed and would be strictly for public safety. The tower is to be funded and maintained by the Tennessee Advanced Communications (TACN) network intended to provide first responders the ability to better communicate locally and have additional coverage to talk on the radio with surrounding state communication towers during major events and disasters. Last year the county began funding upgrades from its old analogue system to new state of the art portable, mobile and fixed radio transmission technology and it joined the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN) to eventually make the transition complete.