HUNTER — Greene County is set to build a new cell tower at Hunter Town Hall to boost service to its 911 call center in Cairo.
At the Greene County Legislature meeting on Wednesday night, the Legislature unanimously approved a $504,500 bid from the Mid-State Communications and Electronics firm in Oriskany to construct the new tower.
The county was previously awarded the funding from the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services for the project.
“We’re going to build a 911 tower there,” Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said. “We went to the town because logistically with the build-out of the 911 system, that became an integral location to connect the two new towers we built on Windham Mountain and Hunter Mountain. We leased space in Twilight Park (in Haines Falls), so this daisy-chain of towers will better secure the communication system and remove any dark spots where radio communications can’t occur because of topography.”
The cell tower project is a partnership with the town of Hunter, with the county funding the entirely of the installation.
“It’s for the emergency communications system to provide some redundancy for the mountaintop,” Hunter Town Supervisor Sean Mahoney said. “It’s an important upgrade. It will sit on the new parcel that’s adjacent to town hall. It’s a partnership. But currently only the 911 and some town communications equipment will be on it. If there’s any carriers like Verizon, AT&T, etc., that wanted to lease space, the county and town would split those revenues.”
The county received two bids for the construction work, with the Mid-State Communications and Electronics contract accepted over a $607,300 bid submitted by Elevated Consulting LLC of Ithaca.
“We’ll lease a section of town hall property by their DPW (Department of Public Works) property and then we’ll install the 120-foot tower,” Groden said of the project. “Then we’ll relocate the town DPW radio system and that location will be a part of our 911 emergency tower. In the future, if a cell provider needs an additional system, we’d be able to lease that vertical real estate space to an AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. That would be in the future. It’s main purpose is for the 911 communication tower.”
Mahoney said the town does not have a specific time frame for when the cell tower will be installed.
“I’m pretty certain that they want to get this done pretty quickly,” he said. “We haven’t been given a timetable. However, we expect construction to begin this season.”