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Bald Mountain Communication Site Proposal

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Larimer County Law Enforcement is proposing a public safety radio facility to be built on the summit of Middle Bald Mountain. The facility would consist of a 60 foot tower, a 108 square foot modular building and an outdoor mounted standby diesel generator. This website will contain information and documents regarding this proposal.

Project Information

Project Documents

Recent Updates

1/18/2012

Cost recovery agreement - Signed by Larimer County on 12/27/2011 and the United Sates Forest Service (USFS) on 1/5/2012.

5/31/2011

Larimer County staff met with the USFS staff (Kevin Atchley, Sue Greenley and Dyce Gayton) on April 5th. At that meeting we followed up with the USFS on the civil engineering data we had provided. (the detailed version of what we gave the BoCC on March 31). Kevin Atchley told us the USFS had a very heavy workload and was not sure when they could move forward on the Middle Bald Project, but they recognized the importance of the project and would add it to their workload. We asked the USFS for:

  1. A plan for what we need to do to move the project forward.
  2. A Statement of Work and assistance for hiring an environmental consultant to finish out the Environmetnal impact Study.
  3. The collection agreement form the USFS so we know what their resources will cost us.

The USFS representatives said they would get moving on these items but were unsure how long it would take. We made clear our concern that the data already collected by Mangi (Engineering Associates) as part of the previous EA process be used before it went stale and those studies needed to be re-done. The USFS could not provide any assurances that this would be the case. They told us that the wildlife study data and report was missing from the original data.

Larimer subsequently contacted Matt Tobler from Blue Mountain Environmental (subcontractor to Mangi) and he has provided the data to Sue Greenley. We also told them we would pay to have it turned into a report if that was needed. Sue told us that would be premature.

At this point we are waiting for the USFS to provide the items we asked for on April 5th.

4/4/2011

Recent reports and information produced:

3/29/2011

Information for Commissioners' work session on Thursday, March 31 @ 1:30pm

3/14/2011

Larimer County's response per citizen inquiry as to a recent FCC application form:

The FCC license Application Form 601 - schedule D (locations) asks if construction of this facility would cause "significant environmental effect" as defined by 47CFR 1.1307.

After reviewing that section of the code, Dave Rowe, Larimer County Technical Communications, decided that our proposed facility did not meet any listed criteria.

On 1/19/2011 Ben Myers acting as the Mummy Range Institute filed a Petition to deny with the FCC specifically citing 47CFR 1.1307(7), that our facility would involve significant change to surface features.

Having again reviewed the criteria listed in 47CFR 1.1307(7) and the design characteristics of our project Dave still believes our proposed project does not meet that criteria.

In our response Dave outlined our proposed facility and if the FCC decided that we do meet their EA criteria, we would not need to submit an EA to the FCC with this application because 47CFR 1.1311(e) does not require submission of an EA to the FCC is another federal agency (in our case the USFS) has already assumed that responsibility.

3/14/2011

CIO response to the FCC application.

3/14/2011

The Larimer County Sheriff's Office will meet with the Larimer County Board of Commissioners for a Work Session on Thursday, March 31st from 1:30-3:30pm in the Commissioners' Conference Room, 2nd floor, 200 West Oak Street, Fort Collins.

Background/Situation/Options per the Larimer County Sheriff's Office: As we have been developing the Larimer County's Public Safety Radio system build out, there was identified a lack of coverage issue in the Red Feather Lakes and Poudre Canyon areas.  A site was located several years ago on one of the Bald Mountains SW of Red Feather Lakes.  The last 3-4 years we have been working with the USFS to evaluate a prospective site for a tower to improve coverage.  In 2010, after a request from the USFS, an engineering study was done on a Poudre Canyon and Middle Bald Mountain tower option.  We have information to share with the BCC about the two studies.

The March 31 Work Session is titled "Discussion of Larimer County Public Safety radio." The purpose of the Work Session is to "Present information about the two studies so that the BCC would be better informed about possible solutions for future decisions.

The requested action for the March 31 work session is: Hear the study results and ask questions as needed.

Work Sessions are open to the public and can be heard online at: http://larimer.org/bcc/broadcast.cfm. The meeting recordings are also archived.

1/13/2011

The County is in the process of gathering detailed cost information from contractors and suppliers on the alternatives for the Poudre canyon public safety radio site. Given the season, there will be no 'on the ground' activity at any of the potential sites until May or June 2011 depending on accessibility.

Once gathered, the cost estimates for each option will be presented to the County Commissioners.

11/5/2010

Larimer County to Apply for 800Mhz frequencies

Because these are not always available when needed, Larimer County will apply for 800Mhz frequencies to be used for future Middle Bald communications if that project is deemed feasible. If Larimer County is alloted the frequencies applied for, Larimer County only reserves the right to use the frequencies with the reservation holding for a given time period. Larimer County can also choose not to use the frequencies at all. These frequencies are not readily available but some will become available soon and Larimer County wants to put a hold on them in case they are needed. Frequencies in the 800 mhz spectrum are the radio frequencies most often used specifically by public safety agencies to be able to communicate with each other.

10/15/2010

Update on the portion of the work the Larimer County Engineering Department is managing for the Public Safety Radio site.

9/9/2010

Larimer County's survey consultant will be on site to survey in the proposed alignment of the access road, building site and tower location on Thursday 9/16 and Friday 9/17. At this time (Sept. 9 - 10:30a.m.) we do not know exactly what time they will arrive but I would expect them to be on site between 9:00 and 10:00.

9/8/2010

The following is the schedule information as of today, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010 from: Todd Juergens, Senior Construction Manager, Larimer County Engineering Department.

Todd will meet with the Geotechnical Engineer on site at 9:00 this Friday (9/10/2010). They will be reviewing the proposed road alignment and the proposed tower and building locations. There are no plans to drill any holes during this site visit. If after this site visit it is determined that we need additional subsurface information we will schedule a follow up site visit and I will let you know when that is planned.

The surveying has not yet been scheduled although Todd believes it will occur next week (9/13-9/17). The consultant has been directed to notify Todd of the schedule and we will post that here.

Todd does not have information regarding the PVREA schedule although they were on site on August 25th, as he met them during one of his site visits.

Todd can be contacted at 498-5711 or tjuergens@larimer.org

8/18/2010

The District Ranger of the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests has approved Larimer County's special use permit and Larimer County has until the end of the calendar year to complete the studies.

7/22/2010

Larimer County Commissioner Lew Gaiter, along with Major Justin Smith from the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and staff from the County's Information Technology and Engineering Divisions will host a public meeting on Thursday, July 29, from 7-9 pm at the Fire House, 44 Fire House Lane, in Red Feather Lakes to discuss current Middle Bald Mountain issues.

Larimer County has applied for a special use permit to gather more information as relates a Middle Bald Mountain Communication Site. The County wants to drill approximately five bore holes drilled, by hand (4" diameter, no more than 10' depth), near the summit of Middle Bald Mountain to gain further information prior to deciding whether or not to reactivate a previous proposal.

Thursday's meeting is being held to explain the process and why it is being asked for.

7/6/2010

Larimer County has applied for a special use permit to gather additional information before deciding whether or not to reactivate the previous proposal. The data gathered would help them better refine their original proposal were they to decide to continue.

2/12/2010

Copy of letter from USFS to resume processing of the application for Middle Bald NEPA study. Based on the letter, Larimer will complete the special permit application for Transportation and Utility systems and Facilities on Federal Lands to authorize a range of studies, engage the vendors associated with missing biological data/reports to reach a solution, and work with interested parties on the scope of the engineering contracts required to gather costs on both the middle bald and alternative Poudre Canyon site(s) for input into the NEPA.

12/10/2009

Copy of letter to USFS requesting re-activation of application for Middle Bald NEPA study.

11/17/2009

The Larimer County commissioners directed county staff members today, November 17, 2009, to reactivate an application to the U.S. Forest Service to place a radio tower on Middle Bald Mountain west of Red Feather Lakes.Reactivating the application allows the County to proceed with engineering studies to determine the costs associated with building the tower and running electrical power to it. The Board of County Commissioners recently asked for the costs associated with the project and today's decision allows County staff to move forward to determine those costs.

11/9/2009

The Board of Larimer County Commissioners held a work session today, to hear the Pericle Communications Company drive test survey results measuring both VHF and 800 MHZ radio coverage from Middle Bald and South Bald Mountains. The next step is the Board will hear a formal request from the Sheriff's office to re-activate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for Middle Bald and to study potential costs associated with a radio site(s). The Commissioners would receive such a request at an Administrative Matters meeting. These are held on Tuesdays beginning at 9:30a.m. The earliest such a request would occur would be at the November 17 Administrative Matters meeting.

10/29/2009

  • A work session with the Board of County Commissioners on the results of radio testing on Bald Mountain with Jay Jacobsmeyer - President of Pericle Communications, takes place on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009 at 10am in the Commissioners' Conference Room, 2nd floor, 200 West Oak St., Fort Collins. Public comment is not part of a works session although anyone can listen in or attend a work session. It will be streamed on the County's web site at: http://www.larimer.org/bcc/broadcast.cfm

    The Board of County Commissioners can't make decisions that take a formal action at a work session; however they can provide staff with general direction. Decisions are made at a meeting that is advertised as a decision making meeting.
  • Added questions 12 & 13 to the Common Questions.