County commissioners approve engineering contract for Big Rock tower

Comanche County Commissioners are ready to get a new radio communications tower project off the ground.

Commissioners, acting in their capacity as the Comanche County Facilities Authority, approved a professional services contract this week with Tradesman Architectural Studios, to provide design and engineering services on the replacement project for Big Rock Tower near Medicine Park. The firm will be paid $32,450 for its work.

Commissioners had been prepared to table the item because the agreement has not been through the legal review. But, Emergency Management Director Clint Langford said time is of the essence. Because the project is being funded with an allocation from Comanche County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) monies, the tower project must be under construction contract by Dec. 31.

“We’re on a deadline,” Langford said, explaining the county must follow federal guidelines for ARPA funds or risk having to give the money back, and those guidelines specify a Dec. 31, 2024, date for all ARPA-funded work to be under contract.

Langford said while the county’s legal entities have not reviewed the professional services contract, he followed the same outline that Comanche County Health Department used on its already-approved professional services contract for the new facility it is building with ARPA funding. Langford said he is afraid that if commissioners tabled approval of the contract until legal review is completed, the county will not be able to meet the Dec. 31 deadline.

“We were late in starting this project,” Langford said, of efforts county staff has had to make after only getting commissioner approval for ARPA funding earlier this month.

County officials said the tower project isn’t the only project being watched.

Comanche County Clerk Carrie Tubbs warned county department heads that the deadline is approaching for any project seeking ARPA funding, but not yet under contract.

“We’re at a time crunch,” Tubbs said, of efforts county officials must make to keep ARPA-funded projects moving forward. “If any little thing comes up, it may move the project off the ARPA list.”

Commissioners worked around the legal review needed for the tower project by approving it conditionally, meaning commissioner approval remains in place only if the legal review does not uncover any problems.

The proposal approved by commissioners in early August allows replacement of a tower that has been perched high atop the rocks overlooking Medicine Park for years.

The project, estimated at $752,697, comes as the result of inspections done every five years. Langford said during the last inspection, engineers identified a weakness: the tower is made of pipes, rather than the solid metal rods that are common today. Pipe was common when the tower was built, but today’s contractors want solid metal rods to provide stability, he said.

The new tower will be placed in the same location as the old one, and will be a similar height, Langford said.