In 1996, Sumner County Emergency Communications made county maps for response agencies as the county addressing system had recently been established with roads assigned names. The plotter, used to make the maps, was a pen and ink plotter that printed little dots that eventually formed lines, labels, and graphics. It would take 8 hours to make one 36″ X 36″ map as the little pen tirelessly tapped ink onto paper.
Our audio logger/recorder was state of the art…it recorded telephone and radio traffic on slow speed VHS tapes that held 24 hours worth of data. A new tape had to be inserted into the logger daily, and subsequently to save one years worth of information, we had to store 365 VHS tapes.
Also that year, the minimum wage was raised to $4.75 an hour and a loaf of bread was about 97 cents. The average price of gasoline was $1.23/gallon.
The Fox News Network began broadcasting, and the summer Olympics began in Atlanta.
