Full Notification

New Calaveras County First Responder Radio Communications Site On-Line

On October 4, 2019 at 10:00 AM, the American Red Cross will host a ribbon-cutting in front of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office (San Andreas) to celebrate the completion of the county’s new communications site above Arnold. The new communications tower is a joint effort between the Red Cross, Calaveras County Water District and the Sheriff’s Office that is designed to improve radio coverage and capabilities for first responders, while making the system more robust.

On September 9, 2015, the Butte Fire ignited and quickly spread to areas of northern and central Calaveras County, triggering a massive response of firefighters and law enforcement first responders from Calaveras and neighboring counties. Fire damaged the power structure for one of the county radio sites, causing a domino effect failure of another site. Meanwhile, another county site that relies on solar power alone failed due to the large amount of smoke in the air for several days casting shadow on the solar panels. A large number of radio system users and massive radio traffic put a strain on the remaining part of the radio system, especially in areas where terrain previously limited radio coverage.

Thanks to the generosity of Red Cross donors who supported Red Cross relief and recovery efforts during and after the Butte Fire, the Red Cross was able to provide a grant of nearly $108,000 to fund the project. The new communications site fills coverage area weak spots and provides scalable expansion capabilities for more first responder radio systems any time they become necessary.

The project was made possible through the cooperation of the Calaveras County Water District, Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office, Calaveras County Sheriff’s Volunteer Unit, Calaveras Information Technology Department, and the Friends of the Calaveras Sheriff’s Office.