HOPKINSVILLE, KY (CHRISTIAN COUNTY NOW) – Christian County is moving ahead with investing around $50,000 in a backup E911 center, which would permit dispatchers to easily transition to a second location in the event of power failure, outages, or natural disasters. There is currently only one permanent location for ECC operators to work out of in downtown Hopkinsville.
“Currently we don’t have anywhere that we can go and operate in the exact same way,” said Sarah Draggo, the ECC Director in Hopkinsville. “We pack up suitcases full of laptops, whatever phones we can take, we go to the sheriff’s department, and we set up and take over his training room.”
Draggo explained that during the flood in 2025, ECC had to wait 14 hours for an AT&T technician to arrive and make their phones functional. In response, Hopkinsville Fire Department’s newest fire station was designed with a designated space for the backup center in mind.
“We would just drive out there, flip a switch, and everything works so that there’s less time lapse for citizens and responders to be able to communicate and get people the help that they would need,” she said. In order to keep everyone properly trained and avoid chaos if the backup is ever needed, ECC operators plan on utilizing the space at Fire Station 5 at least once a month for a full 24 hours so they can test the equipment and set an expectation for functionality in the space.
Funding request during fiscal court
During a special called Christian County Fiscal Court meeting on Jan. 29, magistrates approved the reimbursement of E911 funds that will be used to get the backup center initially established. Magistrate Philip Peterson, who serves on the E911 Board, said that this request for funding does fall underneath the statute for use, and is necessary for Hopkinsville and Christian County.
The request for funding is described as the bare minimum needed to get it up and running, with more equipment anticipated to be needed in the future. Draggo said during the meeting, “This is just to get us started so that we do have a backup for the tornado season coming up.”
The total amount needed is $58,282, which the county will reimburse from the E911 fund. This will help purchase equipment like computer monitors, CPU’s, battery backups, a server rack, recorder ASA, radios/paging encoder, and IT capabilities.
In the past, when phone service outages impacted ECC services, residents were able to call an alternate number or send text messages to 911 detailing the emergency. Spreading the word about outages however is a challenge, leaving residents unable to contact fire and police services.
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