THOMASVILLE — A towering structure located in Thomasville is about to get some added support.
Recently, the Thomasville City Council approved a contract with United Tower Company to upgrade the communications tower, located at the Jail-Justice Center.
The upgrade will cost $40,000 and will be paid from the city’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax fund as part of the Interoperable Radio Communications Project, city staff said.
“The tower is not going to be extended, it will not be taller or wider,” Assistant City Manager Lynn Williams said Thursday. “We are going to put in new guy wires to replace those there that will be stronger and a higher gauge to provide extra support. Also, we’re going to reinforce the tower by putting in some additional steel.”
A guy wire is a stabilizing brace used to secure tall structures.
“Think of the project as putting on additional support to hold up a swing set,” she explained. “You’re not making the swing set taller or wider; you are just putting in some additional reinforcements to make it stronger.”
Over time, the City of Thomasville and Thomas County — both utilize the tower — have added communications equipment, Assistant City Manager Don Atkinson said.
A recent assessment indicated the tower is “at maximum capacity.”
“This upgrade to the tower’s structure will allow us to add new equipment and upgrade existing equipment in the future, if necessary,” Atkinson said in a city news release.
There will be no need to replace existing guy anchors, staff said, which will minimize both cost and disruption of Cherokee Lake Park activities.
The park, a popular spot for picnics as well as joggers and walkers, is located next to the Jail-Justice Center and is where some of the tower’s anchors sit.
“If the installation of new guy anchors had been necessary, the cost of the upgrade would have been greater,” City Manager Steve Sykes said in a city news release. “In addition, recreation opportunities at Cherokee Lake may have been disrupted during construction. We are pleased to be able to move forward with minimal disruption for our citizens.”
The 400-foot tower was erected in 1993.
“The tower was originally built to host communications systems,” Williams said. “Specifically, we acquired a 800 megahertz radio system in the early 1990s. We needed additional height for this system so we built the tower.”
Work is expected to start in early April and be completed by the end of that month.
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Philip Vealey, a technology services technician with the City of Thomasville, gazes up at the communications tower, located at the Jail-Justice Center. The Thomasville City Council recently approved upgrading its physical structure, a project slated to begin in April. Teresa Williams/Times-Enterprise
March 4, 2010
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