The Russell County LINK Board met last Friday to discuss issues related to 911 Dispatch.

For discussion was the issue of “skip” or when atmospheric conditions can interfere with normal transmission of communications. At issue was the occasional static being experienced between personnel and dispatch operators.

Emergency Management Director H.M. Bottom said that discussions with experts over the years left him concluding that there is not much that can be done about it with the current system.

With Russell County receiving a near $1 million grant, to share in part with Adair County, for new digital communications equipment for emergency responders would negate atmospheric conditions as a source of interference in vital communications.

Bottom noted that a separate grant was received with assistance from the Lake Cumberland Area District that will keep the county’s reverse 911 system going.

The system was first put in place through a grant from Homeland Security and specifically targeted citizens who would be affected by a breach of the Wolf Creek Dam.

Initially the program was a federally funded program that grouped Russell, Clinton, Monroe and Cumberland counties through the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security.

The new system, which will be implemented through contract winner Code Red, is a voluntary program in which in the event of bad weather or other emergency the person’s phone will be activated through their numbers being in the data base, informing them of the emergency situation.

The system dials out up to 600 lines per 10 seconds to deliver a pre-recorded message. Both home and cell phones can be notified.

Additionally, according to Bottom, the emergency phone notification system will remain active, even if the user is out of town, such as on vacation.

It is expected that the new system will be in place within the next 60 days.

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While alcohol sales of any kind have been stymied in Russell County as of late (most recently the failed “moist” vote in Jamestown back in 2009 comes to mind) nearby Somerset in neighboring Pulaski County is gearing up for a big wet/dry election on Tuesday, June 26.

That date has now been officially set for the option election in the city of Somerset where citizens will choose whether or not they want to allow the legal sale of alcoholic beverages in the city limits.

The vote will apply only to registered voters who are residents of Somerset.

Pulaski County organization Progress Somerset, which was founded by David Weddle, filed several petitions in order to have the alcohol election.

Currently, Pulaski County and Somerset are like Russell County in that they are dry, or prohibition, counties where the sale of alcohol is not allowed.

Burnside, however, in Pulaski County, has allowed individual drink sales at restaurants for several years. Because of the vote there back in 2005, the city of Burnside annexed several miles of Lake Cumberland shoreline into their city limits, allowing Lee’s Ford Marina’s Harbor Restaurant to sell alcohol by the drink as well.

In elections earlier this year, Corbin also voted to allow alcohol package sales, while London did not, opting for individual drink sales only.

In 2010, the city of Danville in Boyle County was the first Kentucky county to go from “moist” to “wet.” Several weeks ago voters in Rockcastle County voted “no” to both kinds of alcohol sales, while voters in Pulaski County’s Caney Fork precinct decided not to allow alcohol sales at the often-frequented Eagles Nest Country Club.