ASHLAND — The Ashland County Sheriff’s Office will abandon an unused Loudonville radio tower, which saves it from paying upkeep costs and a $60,000 demolition.
The ACSO, like every other Ohio sheriff’s office, uses the Multi-Agency Radio Communication System (MARCS) for digital, voice and data communications.
More than 3,000 public safety/public service agencies use MARCS on the network of 360 towers located throughout Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Administrative Services.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve the services that we’ve giving our county residents, and then we’re also trying to be very conservative with our spending,” Sheriff Kurt J. Schneider said.
That’s why Schneider asked the Ashland County Board of Commissioners to approve a termination and personal property disposal agreement for a Loudonville VHS radio transmission tower at the Thursday meeting.
The tower sits on Calvin and Christine Lowe’s Township Road 709 property and no longer serves a purpose to the office.
“As we keep building that system, eventually you fall off the old radio systems, which is what, number 10 was, the old VHS system that we used. And so that system has become obsolete,” Schneider told commissioners.
The ACSO purchased the tower roughly 20 years ago, which included a lease agreement for the land it occupied. The lease automatically renews every five years.
Schneider began talking with the Lowes nearly a year ago about how they could work together to terminate the contract. The two officials signed an agreement on Tuesday.
“He was gracious enough to allow us to terminate the contract,” Schneider said, “We also made some contacts for him to have his discussion on how they wanted to continue to operate that so that he was able to keep that tower operational on his own accord.”
But the important part of this deal is it prevents the ACSO from tearing down the inactive tower, which would have cost roughly $60,000. Schneider said that also saves them from paying future upkeep costs.
“That should give us savings of about $8,000-10,000 a year down there between utilities, maintenance and the lease on the property,” Schneider said.
Commissioners unanimously approved the termination request.