MACC finds new location for Moses Lake tower

MOSES LAKE — The Multi Agency Communications Center (MACC) is moving forward with plans to construct new towers in Moses Lake and Warden.

The towers are part of MACC’s plan to replace existing ones and add new towers throughout Grant County in an effort to improve radio communications. The changes are funded by a 2005 voter-approved 0.1 percent sales tax.

After encountering difficulty with leasing a site on the corner of Potato Hill Road and Baseline Road, Radio Communications Manager Dean Hane said the center started work on a new site near Wheeler Road in Moses Lake for the tower.

“We got through some of the contractual stuff there (at the Moses Lake site),” he said. “The field survey work is being done … The boundary line work is being started. The geo-tech work is going to start on Tuesday for that site.”

Hane said there’s no issues with the site, calling the progress with moving the antenna from the water tower on Nelson Road “a big domino” in the center’s plan.

The decision to place the tower on Wheeler Road has meant MACC needs to build another tower in Warden, Hane said. The center is planning to build a tower on Beck Way.

“We’re getting some marks in the ground and lining some stuff up,” Hane said. “Things are kind of on hold right now with licensing and manufacturing until we nail down these last two sites, so I’m hoping that gets formalized in the next couple of weeks.”

Hane expects the sites to be finished by June, he said.