Numerous communication improvements are on the horizon throughout the county. On Tuesday, August 24, Sheriff Mark Falk and Radio Systems Coordinator Duane Ege brought several tower lease agreements to the county board for its approval.
Cell phone
coverage in Portage
After numerous cell phone companies turned down the opportunity to lease space on the county-owned communications tower on tribal land in Grand Portage, one company has decided to take the plunge.
AT&T is working on an agreement that would allow it to lease space on the tower. To enable that, a more detailed lease agreement between the Grand Portage Tribal Council and Cook County has been drawn up.
“I feel we really want to help Grand Portage get cell phone coverage up there,” Ege told commissioners. He said that when he asked the tribal council for permission to build the tower where it is, he told them he would try to convince a cell phone company to locate there as well.
Towers on Gunflint Trail
According to Sheriff Falk, AT&T has been wanting to bring service to the Gunflint Trail for a couple of years. Its equipment would require a sturdier type of tower called a guyed tower that would be about 10 feet taller than existing towers in Cook County. According to Ege, guyed towers would present a smaller visual profile and work better with the state’s new interagency Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) system. Erecting such towers might require a revision of county ordinance, Ege said.
Currently Cook County owns two towers on the Gunflint Trail – mid-Trail and by Gunflint Lake. In a separate interview, Falk said AT&T is offering to replace them for the county (with the county maintaining ownership). AT&T has also been negotiating with private property owners along the Trail regarding the possibility of placing their own towers on private property.
Duane Ege and Sheriff Falk felt it would be better to work with AT&T on replacing the county’s Gunflint Trail towers in order to prevent more towers from being built. Falk said the state is considering building at least three new towers throughout the county as it implements the ARMER system.
Coast Guard
The board approved a lease agreement with the U.S. Coast Guard that would allow the Coast Guard to replace a 53-year-old tower on county land on Maple Hill.
According to the lease, “Pursuant to specific congressional appropriations, the Coast Guard is creating a network of electronic sensors and transmitters to accomplish its statutory missions of rendering aid to distressed persons, vessels, and aircraft on and under the high seas and the waters over which the United States has jurisdiction, and to make inquiries, examinations, inspections, searches, seizures, and arrests upon these same waters for the prevention of violations of laws of the United States.”
Thecounty will be allowed space on the 180-foot tower for its own use. Commissioner Bob Fenwick pointed out that while the county won’t make money from the tower, it would be able to use it without the responsibility of building or maintaining it.
ARMER system
The board went with Sheriff Falk’s recommendation to hire GeoComm, a public safety communications consulting firm, to help the county develop a plan for joining the Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) system. Emergency response agencies across the state are joining this system so that all can communicate with each other as they comply with new federal bandwidth communication requirements.
GeoComm is already involved in the process of this changeover throughout northeastern Minnesota. Its bid of $26,485 was the middle of three bids. Theproject will be funded by a grant from the state.
Theboard gave its approval to Emergency Management Director Jim Wiinanen to apply for a Northeast Regional Radio Board grant of $7,280 that would require a 25% match of $1,820 for five portable radios compatible with the ARMER system. They would be used by Wiinanen, the Cook County Public Health and Human Services Department, First Responders, and fire departments.
Sheriff Falk said the matching funds could be taken from his department’s mileage account.
In other news:
. The board granted a request from the Banadad Trail Association for a $6,000 loan from the county’s Revolving Loan Fund. It will pay half the cost of a new snowmobile and drag, with the other half being funded by a Federal
Highway Grant. The loan will be repaid over the course of
seven years. . The board approved a request from the Economic Development Authority (EDA) for an approximately
$32,000 advance on its levy to help pay operating
expenses. . Commissioner Fritz Sobanja reported that the Grand Marais Library Board has been accepting bids from architectural firms for designing an addition to the library. The addition is one of the capital improvement projects that could be funded from the new county 1% sales and use tax.
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