“Old No. 7 Tower” connects Moore County first responders to statewide network

By Tabitha Evans Moore
Editor & Publisher

State and local officials as well as folks from the distillery gathered last week in Lynchburg to celebrate the opening of the Old No.7 Tower. | Photo Provided

LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — The name may be distinctly Lynchburg, but its reach extends across the state.

Local officials, state leaders and representatives from Jack Daniel’s gathered last week at the Jack Daniel Distillery Visitor Center to mark the opening of the “Old No. 7 Tower,” a new communications site that connects Metro Moore County’s first responders to the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN), the state’s interoperable radio system.

The tower — co-located on infrastructure owned by Jack Daniel’s Distillery — allows law enforcement, fire, EMS and emergency management personnel in Moore County to communicate seamlessly with agencies across Tennessee. The site went live in December and officials say it will reach peak performance soon.

“This is a major milestone for Metro Moore County, a project that’s been nearly three years in the making,” said Metro Moore County Public Safety Director Jason Deal during the ceremony. “The TACN system enhances our communications and information sharing so we can get the best out of all our agencies in the event of a crisis or disaster.”

Among those participating in the ceremony were Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Jeff Long; Metro Moore County 911 Board Chair Larry Hatfield; Metro Moore County Mayor Sloan Stewart; Metro Moore County Sheriff Tyler Hatfield; Metro Moore County Public Safety Director Jason Deal; and Jack Daniel’s Distillery Senior Vice President and General Manager Melvin Keebler, along with representatives from the Metro Moore County E-911 Communications Center, Emergency Management Agency, Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, Metro Moore Sheriff’s Office and the Jack Daniel’s Fire Brigade.

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A $1 million community investment

For residents who don’t follow radio systems and state acronyms, the upgrade simply means this: when something serious happens in Moore County — a tornado, major fire, large crash or multi-agency emergency — local deputies, firefighters and paramedics can now communicate instantly with state troopers and neighboring counties on the same network without delays or patchwork connections. In an emergency, faster and clearer communication can translate into quicker coordination and response on the ground.

To join the network, the Metro Moore County 911 Board invested $1 million to upgrade its emergency communications center with new consoles and purchase radios for patrol cars and fire trucks. TACN provided ambulances with new radios, and the state installed the generator, shelter and radio equipment at the local site.

TACN, a division of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, is a statewide radio system funded by the Governor and Tennessee General Assembly. It includes mobile and fixed transmission sites across Tennessee and is designed with built-in redundancy, meaning the network can remain operational even if individual sites are damaged during natural or man-made disasters.

State officials say the advantage of the system is interoperability — enabling local, state and federal agencies to respond as separate entities but communicate as one. More than 73,000 government users are currently supported statewide, and all state agencies transitioned to the network last year.

For Moore County residents, the new “Old No. 7 Tower” represents a locally funded investment into a broader safety infrastructure — one that ties one of Tennessee’s smallest counties into a communications backbone designed to function when traditional systems fail. •

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