Progress on New Communications Tower

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

February 28th 2025

RICHMOND – The town is soliciting public comments on the new emergency communications tower to be installed at 147 Shannock Hill Road.

The new tower will replace the original tower, which was destroyed in July, 2022 by a fire caused by fireworks.

As it awaits the new tower, the town has been making do with a portable tower on loan from the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency.

Funding for the new tower is already in place. Town Administrator Karen Pinch said the town had received $165,000 from Sen. Jack Reed’s office and had also allocated $450,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the project.

Pinch said the new tower is being donated to the town by the state EMA.

“This is a tower that was purchased by [RI] EMA and it’s currently in, I believe it’s Gloucester, that they are giving to the town, but there’s a significant cost in moving it here, pouring the concrete and erecting it and getting it all set up, as well as erecting a structure to house the associated equipment,” she said.

The transportation and assembly of the tower and associated structures will be performed by Elevated Construction, which will install the 160-foot steel structure, as well as a diesel-powered emergency generator and an equipment shed, on the 5.1-acre site where the old tower stood. The facility will be enclosed by a fence.

When Will the New Tower Be Installed?

Pinch said the town must comply with the requirements that accompany the federal funding, and those include an environmental study and soliciting public comment.

The environmental study, she said, is largely complete.

“The feds actually did the environmental study, but there are still other hoops we have to jump through that the vendor who’s going to do the work is assisting us with, which is huge,” she said.

Responders Eager to See the Tower in Place

The new tower can’t come soon enough for emergency responders.

Police Chief Elwood Johnson said,

“For us, this is a taller, stronger tower that’s going to enhance our emergency capabilities.”

Johnson also noted that the new structure would be taller than the surrounding trees.

“This tower put us well above that growth,” he said.

Richmond Carolina Fire Chief Scott Barber said the town had been making do since the old tower burned.

“We’ve been at a loss since the tower fire,” he said. “We have quite a few dead spots, due to the fact that we’re totally offline for that tower and we have no backup if our main line goes down from North Road in Ashaway. So, when the new system gets up, it’s going give us back the communications we had, plus we’re going to be at a little bit of a higher height, where the signal should reach out further, and we’re going to be able to link all our tower sites together with a microwave dish.”

The tower will also make it possible for the town to join the 800 - megahertz frequency band used throughout the state.

“That’s going to give us connection with the statewide system that we don’t have right now,” he said. “The Southern League, …the core departments are Westerly, Misquamicut, Carolina, Hope Valley, Ashaway, the two ambulance corps  and Charlestown – we’re all on a network and we have multiple tower sites in the Westerly-Chariho region that are linked together and by having that tower site down, our capabilities have been less than ideal, so that’s why we’ve been pushing so hard to keep that ARPA funding and keep this project going, because it’s vital, especially for the Town of Richmond and the Richmond police.”

Barber said he hoped construction would begin soon.

“I’m hoping that we can break ground within the next few weeks and get this project over and done with,” he said.”

The town is soliciting comments from the public because of the proximity of the tower site to the Shannock Historic District. 

“We have not received any [comments] as of yet,” Pinch said.

The comment period will remain open until March 26.