In August the county board moved forward to contract for construction of eight new towers to carry the new system. An additional three; one base self-supporting tower at the Sheriff’s Department and shared towers in Warba and Deer River will bring the total to eleven.

The eight towers will be located near Alvwood, Bass Lake (near Effie), Bigfork, East Central Itasca County, Inger, Nashwauk, Sugar Hills and Suomi Hills. The Sugar Hills tower will be built in partnership with Lake Country Power and Great River Energy.

Construction of the towers should be complete by Dec. 1, said Medure. The remote towers are guyed structures and range between 350 and 450 ft. high.

Tower lease space has also been offered to telecommunication companies.

Construction of the eight towers will cost about $1.2 million; the county ultimately footing about $500,000 of the bill, the Lake Country and GRE partnership contributing about $94,000 and the state contributing the remainder.

When the project is complete with radio equipment installed, the total bill is expected to be about $9.4 million.

Parts of the state are already up and running on narrowband frequencies, said Medure. The metro area, the ring around the Cities, Stearns County (St. Cloud area) and the Rochester area are converted. Itasca County’s system will be one of the first to be operational in northern Minnesota. When the state has fully completed the conversion, the county will be able to communicate with the Cities over the radio.