A 199-foot communications tower will be constructed behind the village hall.
Lake Orion Village Council members on Nov. 22 gave the OK to become part of Oakland County’s plan to improve the emergency services communication system throughout the county.
Business owners in the downtown area came to the council meeting and wrote letters saying they didn’t have a problem with the construction of the tower.
‘I saw what happened in the village (referring to last year’s Sagebrush fire),? said Ron Zilka. ‘I fully support this and there’s no cost to the village. It keeps our police updated. If we don’t want to support the police, we should discontinue it.?
Kathy and Lloyd Coe, owners of Ed’s Broadway gifts wrote: ‘It’s important for you to understand, especially after the downtown fire, that communications between departments should be taken very seriously. It’s our feeling the safety and welfare of the downtown area and community should be the priority.?
County commissioner Eric Wilson was in favor of building the tower.
‘It’s a great village and downtown. We have tremendous police and fire departments. The ability to communicate is important to the revitalization of the village,? he said.
Two weeks ago, council members were unsure if they wanted to approve the tower, saying it was too big and maybe the tower could be built somewhere else in the village.
According to councilman Harry Stephen, the council received a lot of information about the county’s system during the time between the two meetings. He wasn’t happy that the system has been pending for 15 to 18 months and the council was just receiving material on the proposal in November.
‘My problem is with procedure. We just looked at this two weeks ago,? Stephen said.
Councilman Ken Van Portfliet agreed. ‘No plans were provided. No one saw the physical monster (the tower) until two weeks ago.?
Oakland County’s Patricia Coates said work on installing the system started years ago. ‘We first met with police chief Leach and we did look at the tower at the Ehman Center,? she added.
‘We should have been appraised of this two years ago,? councilman Tom Albert said.
Councilman Bob Hollenbeck reminded the council that the proposed tower came up in discussions of the village’s attempts to seek historic district designation.
Coates told the council the budget was tight on the village tower. It’s already exceeded the $13,000 expected cost because of the time extra expense it took to get an agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office.
She said two weeks ago the only reason SHIPO gave its approval was because the new tower was replacing an existing one.
‘If we have to start over, it could take many years and we can’t guarantee there will be funding then,? she said.
‘The bottom line is, if we don’t approve this now there might not be money down the road,? Van Portfliet said.