Construction starts on new radio towers
Provided photos: Upstate Tower does the site work in Kendall for a soon-to-be erected 180-foot-high radio tower, one of four new ones being constructed in Orleans County. Upstate Tower also is doing site working, including pouring concrete, for the tower sites in Lyndonville and Holley. A new tower will also go up next to the Public Safety Building in Albion.
Contractors have started work on four new radio towers that soon go up in Orleans County to enhance the emergency communications system.
The towers are part of a $6 million project to upgrade the system in the county. The state awarded Orleans a $5,897,141 grant for four new towers, accompanying communication shelters, technology to connect separate radio systems and new radio channels. The project will strengthen communications between multiple jurisdictions and agencies.
The base for a new radio tower is in place next to the Orleans County Public Safety Building in Albion.
Three of the towers will be 180 feet high and they will be located by the Public Safety Building on Route 31 in Albion, Millers Road in Yates near the water tank, and at the Kendall Central School near the bus garage.
The other tower will be 150 feet high and will be near the Holley water tank on Route 237.
The Orleans County Department of Public Works is putting in all stone access roads and electrical trenching and conduit.
Upstate Tower is doing the site work and concrete foundations, and will be installing the towers that were constructed by Nudd Tower in Ontario, NY.
Once the towers are up, the radio tower shelters and emergency standby generators will be installed.
After that the radio system equipment will be installed in late winter or early spring. This project is administrated by the Orleans County Emergency Management Office.
The emergency communications system serves firefighters, law enforcement, highway employees, probation and some other municipal workers in the county.
The system currently has poor coverage in the Holley area, along Lake Ontario and some other isolated locations in the county, especially in buildings with thick walls.
