New 911 Tower May be Going Up in Gulfport

A new 9-1-1 tower may soon be going up in northern Gulfport. Mississippi Highway Patrol has a surplus radio tower it is interested in giving to the Harrison County Emergency Communications Commission (E.C.C.).

The project is still months off, as the E.C.C. needs to negotiate the tower’s lease with the Harrison County School District, but if all goes as planned, the tower may be up by the end of the year. With a growing population in north Gulfport, emergency officials say this tower will be a relief.

Rupert Lacy, Emergency Management Director for Harrison County, says, “We have existing towers, but as the county builds out, in the northwest and the northeast sections. These are areas that we have existing towers that give us service, but when it comes to in-house or in-building coverage, we’re having issues with that. So this is actually giving us a better level so we can go ahead and have communications back to our dispatch points.”

Officials will now negotiate the tower lease with the Harrison County School District.