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Weathersfield seeks to build new communications tower
By Mary Smith
MINERAL RIDGE
Township trustees have authorized advertising for bids to install a new 180-foot communications tower and all of its components.
The communications tower and radio equipment is being paid for by a $495,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant.
The new digital communications tower will be for police and fire communications, and the grant will cover digital radios and related equipment, which have already been purchased.
The tower will be at the township administration building property on 1451 E. Prospect Street.
The township had been using the Armstrong Cable Co. tower on Four Mile Run Road, the highest point in the township, but was notified by Armstrong late in 2011 that there were problems with the tower and it would be torn down.
Police and fire calls from Niles and Weathersfield are to be transmitted through the new tower, Trustee Steve Gerberry said, and the township road department will also use the system.
Trustees also agreed to a settlement agreement to pay $30,000 in all claims in the case negotiated Dec. 6 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in the case of Weathersfield Township vs. Richard Mattessich, a patrolman who had been with the township since 1999, who was fired in December 2011 after a hearing before trustees.
He had been charged with malfeasance, nonfeasance, failure to obey orders and misconduct in office.
There is another suit by Mattessich against the township and Police Chief Joseph Consiglio in which he clams discrimination, which is expected to go to court next April. Gerberry said if Mattessich wins that suit, it would be covered by the township’s insurance.
Trustees also set their salaries for 2013 at $12,346. The fiscal officer’s salary will also remain the same at the at $21,221.