The Benton, Carroll and Henry County Mayors have authored a joint letter of concern to federal representatives, seeking a solution to numerous recent outages at a key National Weather Service weather alert repeater station. They cited the threat to public safety if the NWS repeater station in Vale continues experiencing outages. The station has had six outages since January of this year.
In their letter, Mayors Mark Ward of Benton County, Joseph Butler of Carroll County and John Penn Ridgeway of Henry County urged Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Bill Hagerty, Congressman Mark Green and Congressman David Kustoff to take needed actions on the federal level to remedy this issue.
The letter reads, in part: “The primary NWS (National Weather Service) weather alert repeater for our area is located in Carroll County, within the community of Vale. This repeater, a vital resource for many residents, has gone off-line at least 6 times since the beginning of this year. Each time this has occurred, severe storms were moving into our area. This loss of service has repeatedly left a large portion of our people with no warning of imminent hazards. In rural areas, many have no cell phone service, and must rely upon their weather alert radios, which are controlled and alerted by the local repeater at Vale….
“It is our understanding that the NWS repeater at Vale was installed in the 1970’s, and has had many ‘band-aids’ applied in recent years in an effort to maintain its operation. We humbly ask that you prioritize the safety of our communities, and vigorously advocate with our federal partners for the installation of a new and efficient weather alert repeater in this location.”
Photo: Storm clouds over Maplewood Cemetery in Paris. Shannon McFarlin photo.