Only lawsuit prevents completion of Niagara emergency radio network

LOCKPORT Work on Niagara Countys new emergency radio network is almost complete except for a lawsuit that is preventing the completion of the antenna tower at Upper Mountain Fire Company in Lewiston.

County Fire Coordinator Jonathan F. Schultz said at a County Legislature committee meeting Tuesday that the erection of a tower at North Tonawanda Fire Department headquarters is to be completed Wednesday. Within the next two weeks, the communications dishes and other wiring installations are to be completed.

That leaves the Upper Mountain tower the only tower that needs to be completed, and then well have a network, County Manager Jeffrey M. Glatz said.

Schultz said the tower at Upper Mountain was practically done before the Town of Lewiston filed a lawsuit Nov. 24, contending that the county violated the towns building code by constructing the tower without a town permit.

The structure, which is 220 feet tall, stands on Moyer Road, within 100 feet of several nearby homes. Town law requires a 500-foot fall zone in case of a collapse.

Besides the town itself, five homeowners near the tower are plaintiffs in the suit against the county, the fire company, and the companies hired by the county to construct the network: Motorola Solutions, the contractor on the $10 million job, and L.R. Kimball, the engineering consulting firm.

The lawsuit is to be heard Feb. 4 by State Supreme Court Justice Mark Montour in Niagara Falls, County Attorney Claude A. Joerg said. Thomas C. Beatty, chief deputy at the Niagara County Sheriffs Office, said the Upper Mountain tower is done except for the installation of two communications dishes. One would face south to link with an antenna at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center; the other would face east to connect with a tower outside the former Lockport Mattress plant in Newfane.

Other antennas were built at Terrys Corners Fire Company in Royalton; the Lockport composting plant; and at the county jail.

Although the county needed new equipment because of a Federal Communication Commission order that it reduce the amount of broadcast space being occupied by its emergency radio and data transmissions, the county decided to upgrade its full network in hopes that new antennas would help avoid dead spots in remote areas where two-way radios often dont function. One of those is the Niagara River Gorge, which is why Upper Mountain was selected as a tower site.

In another matter at the session of the Legislatures Community Safety and Security Committee, Sheriff James R. Voutour said he intends to change the rank of all of his departments first-line supervisors from sergeant to lieutenant. The change, agreed upon by the Police Benevolent Association, wont alter anyones salary, he said.

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Only lawsuit prevents completion of Niagara emergency radio network