Floyd County approves site for communications tower

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County supervisors made a second offer on a piece of property west of Rockford to be used to locate a radio tower, and the property owner has agreed to accept the offer, the supervisors said.

The 1½ acres of farmland owned by Stephen Schlader just west of the Floyd County Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve had been the first choice of a group of public safety officials working on the new countywide communications system, because of its elevation and location near needed utilities.

The 300-foot freestanding tower will be part of a system to improve public safety communications throughout Floyd County, and as part of putting the county on the Iowa State Interoperable Communications System (ISICS).

After going into closed session for about half an hour to discuss a purchase offer with County Attorney Todd Prichard, the supervisors came back into session and approved making an offer to Schlader of $70,000 to purchase the property, along with an agreement to share 25% of potential revenue for 30 years from renting antenna space on the tower to other businesses and organizations.

On Feb. 26 the supervisors had offered Schlader $15,000 and 15% of the potential tower revenue for 30 years. A week later Schlader had responded with a counter offer of $75,000 and 25% of the revenue for 30 years.

The process has been delayed for several weeks, as the supervisors discussed other options on property in the area already owned by the county. An earlier suggestion of looking at erecting the tower on the Fossil and Prairie Preserve quickly met with opposition from Floyd County Conservation staff and people from across the county concerned with marring the park.

Most recently the supervisors had looked at putting the tower on the Joney Laudner Family Nature Preserve, which is west of the Schlader property.

Supervisor Chair Mark Kuhn said after the meeting Monday that the Laudner property had been ruled out because of potential costs and additional time required to make the property ready for tower construction.

He said the board had received a letter from Lt. Travis Bartz of the Sheriff’s Office, Floyd County Emergency Management Administrator Jason Webster and Floyd Fire Chief Ben Chatfield – persons who had been at the head of efforts to update the county communications system – asking that the board approve Schlader’s counteroffer.

The letter said the initial cost estimates of the $4.5 million to $5 million communications project included up to $500,000 if needed to purchase land for the tower and to get it ready for use.

It noted that Motorola and Pyramid, the companies supplying the radio communications equipment and the tower, and OmniTel, which would provide the fiber optics broadband communications to the tower, had already done preliminary work based on the Schlader site.

The letter also said that using the Laudner Preserve property would potentially add an additional $40,000 to run fiber, about $62,000 to build a gravel access road to the tower, $12,000 to $31,000 to run electrical power to the site, and $15,000 or more to get an easement for the access road.

It also noted that switching to a new location could add 2 to 3 months to a project that “was ready to proceed back in November.”

The Schlader location “is ideal and is ready to proceed,” the letter said. “It checks all the boxes as an ideal site.”

Once the board came back from closed session Monday morning, the supervisors approved making the offer to Schlader of $70,000 and 25% of tower revenue for 30 years.

Supervisor Dennis Keifer said Prichard had negotiated with Schlader and that offer was acceptable.

Also at the meeting, the supervisors:

• Approved the lone bid for 100,000 tons of rock for county roads this year, from Bruening Rock Products of Decorah at a price of $15.279 per ton, or $1,527,900.

Supervisors noted that the price of rock continues to increase, but County Engineer Jacob Page said the county maintains high quality gravel roads and 100,000 tons per year seems to be a good amount.

He said the county’s motor grader operators help determine which roads need rock each year and the Engineer’s Office comes up with a plan. Some high-traveled roads get rock every year and some roads get rock every other year or every couple of years.

• Approved an agreement with the North Iowa Area Council of Governments (NIACOG) to provide planning and zoning help to the county at $60 an hour as needed. Current Zoning Administrator Jeff Sherman is resigning the position effective March 29. A current job opening notice calls for applications by March 22, and Kuhn said the county has received a couple of applications and may be ready to interview soon.

If the county hires a new zoning administrator, NIACOG Senior Planner John Robbins, who would be providing the planning and zoning help, said he would be available if needed to help transition or train the new administrator.