Radio transmission tower bid accepted
The Brown County Commissioners have approved a contract to build a new radio transmission tower using money from a $2 million capital improvement bond.
The contract with Motorola for $963,420 was approved Sept. 6 to build and equip the new tower. REMC will supply electricity and a backup generator to the site at no cost in exchange for using the tower for their own truck communications, county commissioner Diana Biddle said.
“It’s the same issue for them: In certain areas they don’t have communication,” she said about REMC. “If we have a massive failure, the first thing you want is your radio tower back online. If REMC has the electricity and they are depending on that tower, then you know that’s going to be the first thing that goes back on.”
She said the contract would have to be signed by Oct. 1 or the price will go up by about $100,000.
Emergency responders have “holes” in radio coverage in the northern part of the county. Brown County Sheriff Chief Deputy Brad Stogsdill said the radios also are picking up crossover traffic from state park maintenance radios on their current tower.
“I don’t know how many people have ever felt this, but it’s an eerie feeling when you’re somewhere rolling in on something and you have no communication whatsoever. … You’re just kind of on your own,” he said.
“There are so many of those areas that are shaded from the one (tower) in the park. Where are our office is in Nashville, there’s quite a bit of dead area for our radios just because that hillside of Town Hill shades it. The police department and YMCA are shaded. This will fill that gap, fill the gaps both ways.”
Stogsdill said the new tower also will help Johnson County by opening up the northern part of the area, such as Princes Lakes.
“It will open up a whole area that does not have any communications. We have mutual aid agreements with those agencies, so they will be coming to our aid and we’ll be going to their aid,” he said.
The new 800 mHz radio system allows local police to communicate with departments in other counties and the Indiana State Police. This new tower will help extend the reach of that coverage.
The commissioners also voted to allow Biddle to sign bond documents with Horizons Investments, which won the bid for the $2 million bond with an interest rate 2.2 percent.
Biddle said that according to financial adviser H.J. Umbaugh & Associates, the county will save more than $10,000 in interest based because of that interest rate. Horizons also did not require an upfront fee of $10,000, which had been budgeted.
“The interest over the life of the loan will be less than $100,000 to borrow $2 million for three years, which is pretty darn good,” Biddle said.
The bond was expected to be closed on Sept. 13. More than half of the money will go toward paying for the new communication tower, Biddle said.
The plan is to also use the bond money to replace light poles at Deer Run Park and bleachers at the Brown County Fairgrounds; expand the parking lot at Veterans Hall; restore the bell tower, repair bricks and add security at the courthouse; install security measures at the Emergency Management Agency office; build a new ramp and porch and replace the siding at the Sycamore Valley Senior Center; and do various building improvements at the highway department.
Biddle said that since estimates for the new bleachers came in at a little over $90,000 instead of the budgeted $125,000, money may be in the bond to help cover some repairs at the Bean Blossom Overlook shelter house.
She said that the Brown County 4-H Fair Board would do the demolition of the existing bleachers to help keep costs down, too.
Ownership of shelter house to be transferred to county
The Bean Blossom Overlook shelter house of State Road 135 North is owned by the Indiana Department of Transportation, but INDOT is now working to transfer that property to Brown County.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said Sept. 6 that after doing some research with INDOT, it was discovered that INDOT does own one acre surrounding the shelter house. But she said INDOT is not going to fix the structural problems or roof issues on the shelter.
INDOT had recently transferred all of its shelter houses at overlooks in Harrison County to the county’s government. “They would like to do the same thing with this one acre,” Biddle said.
County Attorney Jake German suggested getting a memorandum of understanding in place as the county makes repairs to the shelter house and waits for the property to be transferred over, which could be a lengthy process involving multiple entities including the attorney general.
Biddle said she is talking with The Beamery about construction and will make contact with the Helmsburg Sawmill to get treated timbers. “I would like to keep it local,” she said.
The commissioners unanimously approved working with INDOT to acquire the property and to enter into a memorandum of understanding to work on the shelter house while the acquisition takes place.
“This project won’t cost us much, and I think it’s a valuable part of Brown County. It’s popular,” commissioner Jerry Pittman said.
Biddle said two Boy Scouts, Sam Bowman and Jacob Wooton, will make repairs to the shelter house as part of their Eagle Scout projects. Bowman will paint the posts and try to straighten them out. He will also repaint the sign there. Wooton will install picnic tables and grills.
Biddle said that this winter, Brown County Parks and Recreation will have local timber buyer Cody Jacobs clear the second overlook on the right past the shelter house on the way to Bean Blossom, along with the south side overlook where the county’s new radio tower will go.
