Public Safety Tower Relocation Project

Project Overview

Public Safety Towers, LLC (PSTC) is proposing to build a new public safety wireless communications tower located at Capital Hill.

As Medford Water Commission’s Capital Hill Reservoir Replacement project gets underway, the existing communications tower will be relocated in order to continue to provide emergency communications to the community. The new tower will be equipped with FirstNet bandwidth, which provides first responders in your community with uninterrupted, mission-critical communications capabilities. FirstNet is the National Public Safety Broadband Network created by Congress in 2012, following recommendations by the 9/11 Commission and operates under the Department of Commerce.

Community Impact

Local public safety within Jackson County should see improved communications in the following ways:

• Allow the public to reach public safety via 911.
• Enable the public and emergency dispatchers to provide pre-arrival intelligence to emergency responders and route calls to the nearest response personnel to achieve a timely response.
• Notify residents and coordinate evacuation plans to the public and other emergency response agencies (e.g., public works, animal control, outside agencies offering mutual aid) during emergencies.
• Send and receive mission critical data that assist emergency responders to make better decisions during an incident.
• Standard day-to-day radio and cellular communications.

To provide maximum benefit to the community, PSTC also encourages all commercial carriers to collocate on its structures. By having commercial tenants on the tower, the essential infrastructure not only provides wireless coverage to the general population, but also provides funding via commercial investment (versus resting solely on the public safety agencies). In an industry where historically commercial and public safety interests have not aligned, PSTC is able to bridge the gap between the demands of commercial carriers and the needs of public safety agencies to provide communities with critical infrastructure so that they may rely on uninterrupted communications every day and when it matters most.

In today’s world, more than 80% of 911 calls are received via wireless communications devices. This means that any gaps in civilian wireless coverage can hinder emergency response when it matters most. One of the goals with this tower is to close some of the gaps we’ve identified in Jackson County to ensure everyone in your community can communicate when it matters most.

Project Cost

PSTC will cover the construction and maintenance costs of the tower, while the City of Medford will provide a ground lease at no charge. The tower will prioritize first responder traffic to ensure reliable communication for emergency response.

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