When emergencies call, Black Creek Volunteer Fire Department Captain Timothy Burgess and his crew can't always count on their radios, walkie-talkies and cellphones to communicate. Burgess said they get poor service because of the mountainous terrain in Etowah County and surrounding areas.
"We need a tower and it's just not for Etowah. If we had a tower here that would facilitate cellular and the two-way radios for us with a repeater, from there, we would be able to facilitate multiply firehalls," he said.
He believes another tower could be beneficial for not only Etowah County, but surrounding counties. He said the problem is signals need to go beyond the mountain tops to reach first responders on the ground. Long range radio is also very much needed. Brodeur said towers are not cheap. He said the last time he built one was in the 1990's at a cost of almost half a million dollars. While finding money for towers has always been an obstacle for the county, it's not the only challenge.