Comanche County Commissioners approve ARPA funds for radio tower project

Eastern Comanche County will receive a new radio transmission tower.

Comanche County Commissioners made the decision Monday, agreeing to allocate remaining money from their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to a project to build a new Big Rock Tower near Medicine Park and Lake Lawtonka. The $752,697 in funding is what remains from an original $2.5 million allocation approved for a project to buy new mobile and portable radios, with related communications equipment, for the county, said David Floyd, with the Floyd and Driver Law Firm. The firm is the county’s consultant on ARPA allocations, ensuring that county projects approved for ARPA money meet guidelines set by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Floyd said while county commissioners originally allocated $2.5 million for the radio upgrade project, bids came in “substantially lower” and the county ended up needing $1.747 million. That freed up almost $800,000 for another project, but Floyd said the tower project didn’t meet federal guidelines in the original allocation because wording wasn’t clear enough to allow its use.

That wording was corrected in a series of actions commissioners took Monday to designate remaining funding to the tower upgrade. Floyd said those documents now allow the project to proceed.

The upgrade is one that Comanche County Emergency Management Director Clint Langford has been anticipating for the tower that has been perched high atop the rocks overlooking Medicine Park for years.

He said communications towers are inspected very five years by engineers and the last inspection on this tower identified what engineers said was a weakness: it is made of pipes (common when it was built), rather than than the solid metal rods that are used for such construction today.

“We’re looking at a tower of the same height, but made of solid rods for stability,” Langford said, of the replacement project he wants to get under way as soon as possible.

Although he doesn’t have a construction start date, he said the project must be under contract by Dec. 31, 2024, under the guidelines attached to ARPA funding allocated to governmental entities such as Comanche County.

The project will be total replacement of the tower, which will be rebuilt in the same location as the existing one. The project also will include installation of radio interface, connecting the tower to the E-911 communications center in Lawton. That fits into the project already funded with ARPA funds, upgrading radios and related communications equipment, he said.

Langford said Comanche County officials also will explore other options for the tower, perhaps allowing other entities to attach equipment for a monthly fee paid to the county. He said the idea is allowing the county to generate some money from the radio tower, funds that could help cover maintenance costs.