The Shawano County Public Safety Committee on April 3 favored the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to update the generators at two communication towers and a highway department shop.
The matter was expected to be approved by the Executive Committee at its April 10 meeting.
Chris Madle, emergency management director, reminded the committee of the failure of the Gresham tower generator to kick in during a storm in summer 2023, which left the county without communications in the central part of the county for a couple of hours.
He proposed new generators at the Bonduel and Marion towers as well as the highway department’s shop on the eastern end of the county.
“These generators are upwards of 20 to 25 years old,” he said. “We can’t get the control system parts for them if they fail.”
He specifically pointed to an analysis of the Marion setup.
“How long that generator is going to hang on is a guess for all of us,” he said.
The estimated cost is $41,670.
The generators at the towers supply power to the towers for 911 and sheriff department radio systems. The additional generator for the highway east shop would provide power to fuel system, door entries and brine pumps. If power is lost there, no one can fuel vehicles, open garage doors for plow trucks or pump or fill brine for road safety.
Jim Davel, administrative coordinator, said he asked that the highway department generator be discussed by the committee for emergency management reasons.
“If we lose the capability to pump fuel out on the east shop due to a storm, we’re going to have significant issues,” he said. “We put $275,000 out there. It only makes good sense in my opinion that we have the capability to, in the event of a severe storm, that we can still fuel.”
He said the fuel usage is better than expected and includes the highway department, sheriff’s department and municipalities on the county’s eastern end.
New generators at the towers is vital, Davel noted.
“I’ve said this before. We put a tremendous amount of money into this dispatch center, but that doesn’t do anything unless those towers work,” he said. “We need to focus on these things, because that is one of the key components of our 911 system, if not the key component.”
Pending approval, the generators could be installed within a couple months.
Shawano County has about $1.7 million remaining in ARPA funds that need to be allocated this year.
In a related matter, Madle said the planned improvements at the Wittenberg tower are taking longer than anticipated, as officials are having trouble finding a local contractor. And, contractors from farther away are reluctant to take the job as they see it as too small of a project.
“To try to find somebody in Wittenberg is tough,” Davel said. “We’re already in April, and we need to get moving on that building quickly. It is in the budget. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be there next year, either. If you don’t get that done, you’re going to have to argue for it.”
Madle said the next project would be make the tower in Leopolis operational as an emergency backup. The county owns the tower, but there is no equipment on it yet. The Pella Fire Department is also interested in using the tower, he said.
“We had that issue in Gresham last year. The generator didn’t kick on,” Madle said. “We didn’t have any backup for our sheriff, fire, EMS in the central area of our county.”
He said both antennas for the tower are already purchased; they just need to be installed.
At the Marion tower site, one of the walls of the building is ripping away from the structure, which will also require immediate attention.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
Repairs, updates planned for communication towers
