The Fontana Village Board in Wisconsin last week unanimously approved an amendment to the village’s zoning code ordinances regarding towers. The Lake Geneva Regional News reported that the move comes in tandem with the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department’s plans to build a new eleven-site simulcast radio system across the county to improve “interoperability and radio coverage.”
The approval paves the way for the new towers to provide emergency services without the need for zoning or conditional use permits. According to Captain Todd Neumann of the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department’s Communications Division, the current radio system is a “patchwork quilt” of disparate systems that don’t support interoperability. “We’re living in a day and age where we all interdepend on one another. Village, township, county sheriff’s department, all our fire departments need to interoperate with each other,” he added.
The first project planned post-board approval is a 275-foot-tall freestanding lattice communications tower near County Hwy. B and Cobblestone Road in the Town of Linn, reported the The Lake Geneva Regional News. According to Neumann, the tower’s height is needed to ensure coverage reaches the village and a nearby lake.
Depending on geography, the remaining towers will vary, anywhere from 200 to over 300 feet tall. The new emergency communications system is slated to be online after testing in late 2024, Neumann told the News.
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