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HARTINGTON – Work at Cedar County’s new emergency communications tower site is nearly done.
Kevin Garvin, the county’s director of emergency management and 911 communications coordinator, provided the board of commissioners with a tower project update on Oct. 10.
The process of moving items from the old tower site, located on the north edge of Hartington, to the new tower site, located about two miles north of the community, started on Oct. 9.
“We got all of the mission critical systems moved and back on the air,” Garvin said in a follow-up interview. “We are moving the remainder of stuff from the old site and preparing it for demolition.”
Steffen Electric of Hartington has a few items to work on for the electrical portion at the new tower site and Art Kathol Appliance Inc. of Bow Valley has completed the installation of the HVAC – heating, ventilation and air conditioning – system.
“The fence is nearly complete,” Garvin said of the fence that is being installed around the new tower site. “It’s going to be at least three weeks before we get grounding completed.
“We also have to install some protection devices for the generator and air conditioner to keep any ice that falls from the tower from damaging those items as well as the roof,” he said.
The tower crew has completed its work on the new tower and removed items – such as temporary antennas – from a Hartelco tower that had been used for emergency communications on a temporary basis since the old tower was knocked down more than a year ago.
“Once the tower crew is finished, the county will demolish the old (support) building and attempt to return the old (tower) site to its previous state,” Garvin said.
The process to replace the old tower started in May 2022 after a storm with straight-line winds of 80-90 miles per hour caused the structure to fall over.
The tower that was blown down sat on a single pin on a concrete pad and was held up by several guy-wires – tensioned cables – on three different sides.
Garvin previously explained the old tower – which had been standing since the mid-1970s – fell down because one of the guy-wires failed during the storm.
“The tower being replaced was a guyed tower on the north edge of Hartington used for public safety communications,” Garvin said.
“As soon as we had the temporary antennas on the Hartelco tower, I started the process – at the direction of the county board – to get the (guyed) tower replaced,” he said.
The new tower is a 400-foot-tall, self-supporting – no guy-wires – structure that is made from galvanized steel.
“Its purpose will be the same as the old tower – to hold the infrastructure needed to allow for public safety communications,” Garvin said.
“A tower holds the antennas and cables above ground so that the twoway radio system can cover a wide area from a fixed location,” he said.
