A second opinion by engineer will determine safety of the area for the public.
Road Closure-Restricted Area
Paulding, Ohio—Local officials are taking safety precautions regarding a recent engineering study on the county-owned communications tower located at the west end of the county fairgrounds parking lot located in the Village of Paulding.
Paulding Putnam Electric, who rents space on the tower, conducted a load study on the tower with hopes to install new equipment. The structural engineering firm that completed the study returned a finding that under current regulation standard ANSI/TIA-222-G, the tower does not comply due to wind speed and ice build-up.
“After having a meeting with county and village officials, as well as our risk management folks, it was decided to close Fairground Drive and mark out a 400’ radius with flags around the tower until we can obtain a second opinion,” said Sheriff Jason K. Landers. “In this situation, the safety of the public outweighs the inconvenience to the folks that travel in this area. No one wants to believe this 400’ tower is going to fall over, but since officials have been put on notice of the engineer’s findings, we have to take a cautious approach. Phone calls have already been made to get professionals here and provide further advice,” said Sheriff Landers.
Information learned from today’s meeting is the tower was built in 2005 using money from homeland security. At that time all specs were in compliance with the rules. Apparently, the regulations changed in 2008 when Ohio adopted the current standard set in ANSI/TIA-222-G.
