MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas — Midland county's radio tower project is booting up again. COVID-19 has put it on the backburner.
"A project with this size takes a lot of time and a lot of resources to get put together. We had to acquire land and other things and so it's been a multi-year project," said Justin Stephenson, project infrastructure administrator for Midland county IT.
Over four years to be exact.
Adding three new radio towers and equipment to their existing tower is going to take officers' 50% portable coverage, to 95%.
This means officers will be able to communicate better and we'll be safer residents because of it.
"One has a little bit higher wattage antenna and so right now there is some better coverage in their car than on foot and so we're just trying to fill in the gaps with both," Stephenson said.
The piece commissioners are discussing this week is the generators.
"The generator ensures that the towers are still up and online and that the officers can still communicate even in things such as the power outage we had a few months ago," Stephenson said.
They want to get things moving again and put in the order now.
"Because COVID and other things. It seems just like there's a shortage of cars, we're trying to make sure we order the generators in a timely manor to have them here by the end of the year," Stephenson said.
Right now the county is working on getting their licenses from the FCC, purchasing the materials for the towers and the three new sites are being cleared and leveled with caliche.
The county's project infrastructure administrator says all said and done, everything should be built, up and running by the beginning of next year.
All three new radio towers will be on the south side of Midland county.
They'll be located approximately at highway 349 and 1379, 1379 and 307 and 1160 and 190.
Down the line, when these towers are officially up and running, the county is looking into partnering with the city to work on a comprehensive and combined radio tower system.