New Radio Towers Being Erected in Ohio County

By SHELLEY HANSON
WHEELING — Work to install two 300-foot towers is under way as part of Ohio County’s new, $3.6 million 450-megahertz radio system.

JG Contracting of Pittsburgh won the bid for the project to install the towers: one at The Highlands and another in West Liberty. The $121,120 installation is part of an overall project to improve first responders’ ability to communicate with each other.

The towers will transmit radio waves for the $2.6 million system, which includes new compatible radios that cost $1 million. The radios will be used by emergency management officials, volunteer firefighters and Ohio County sheriff’s deputies. The system will be located at the 911 center at the City-County Building in Wheeling.

An existing tower located in Bethlehem will be used to complete the triangular circuit of sorts. The sites were chosen because of their ability to provide the line of sight needed between each tower to make the system work effectively, said county Administrator Greg Stewart.

“Our current system is over 30 years old and it didn’t work well anymore,” Stewart said. “A lot of times first responders’ signals would get blocked or the communication would come in scratchier. They would have to move up the road to talk to the dispatcher because something would be blocking the signal.”

City of Wheeling police and firefighters currently use an 800-MHz radio system. In 2006, Wheeling police Chief Kevin Gessler expressed concern about the county purchasing the 450-MHz system. During a public hearing, he said the city’s 800-MHz radio system would provide enough bandwidth to support all county agencies. He also urged residents to oppose an 85-cent 911 fee increase proposed by the county to raise $244,000 annually to help finance the new system. County commissioners eventually approved the hike.

Stewart said, however, the county wanted to use the 450-MHz system because it already is being used by many other counties across the state.

“A network of towers across the state will increase our ability to talk to each other across the state,” Stewart noted.

He hopes other Northern Panhandle counties upgrade to the same system. For example, he said, currently deputies in Hancock County become out of range of their dispatchers while transporting prisoners to the Northern Regional Jail in Marshall County. Some have suggested that law enforcement instead use cellular phones to communicate, but Stewart said it would not be a secure method; messages could not be encrypted as needed.