An earthquake, fire or storm can shake the firmaments and create chaos, but if the park district and public safety groups can come to an agreement, the sky may not fall on Bainbridge Island.
BI Metro Parks and Recreation District, city officials and disaster resiliency nonprofit Bainbridge Prepares have begun assessing the defunct radio tower in Strawberry Hill Park for a potential new use as a communications hub for emergencies.
The 36-year-old, 140-foot-tall steel tower and the large concrete pad it sits on are a unique amenity for emergency preparedness, explained BP director Pascal Schuback at an April parks district meeting, largely because of its convenience: the tower is centrally located, already has access to electric conduits, can support materials storage and is tall enough to reach the rest of the island and beyond.
If retrofitted to modern standards for use during emergencies and for municipal communications, the tower could accommodate swaths of Kitsap as well as Bainbridge — provided the tower is capable of supporting modern tech. Schuback recommended pursuing structural improvements rather than constructing a brand-new tower at the Strawberry Hill site, a project that could cost between $275,000 to $350,000.
“Building a new tower at another location would require significant planning and design review, permitting and community involvement,” Schuback said in April. “If no other tower were erected, the cost for the type of communications capabilities provided by the existing tower would significantly increase and be challenging to raise in this current economic climate. Using the existing tower would support more than just the island — it would be considered a valuable regional resource.”
As of the June 26 parks meeting, BP planned to install four 20-foot storage containers beneath the guylines of the tower for emergency supply storage, including one climate-controlled “Techshed” to house both the infrastructure for radio transmissions and the emergency-response radio operators during a crisis. Two additional containers will also be available for park district storage. To prepare the tower for use, a climbing company will perform an inspection to both install and remove antennas on the broadcast tower without disturbing the existing Osprey nest.
Some parks leaders were cautious about giving the whole project a green light. Commissioner Jay Kinney noted that the parks’ vision for Strawberry Hill Park did not necessarily include becoming a hub for emergency operations; at the June 26 meeting, he asked how flexible the plan for the tower is, and added that he would prefer that the planning for the whole park be addressed at the same time.
“The elements in this plan are designed to be movable,” said parks director Dan Hamlin, referring to the storage containers. “The only immovable parts, without significant expense, would be the broadcast tower and the guidewire footings. The broadcast tower was built in that spot because it is the optimal spot for functionality.”
Commissioner Tom Goodlin added that while there was some public interest in dismantling the broadcast tower, “as it is a bit of an eyesore,” there is a strong argument for keeping it for public benefit.
