Kyle Adams in The Daily Mail reports that Greene County lawmakers are considering a new telecommunication tower on Windham Mountain, in the town of Jewett, for a microwave communication system for emergency communication between nearby counties. The tower would be part of a network of about 12 in the county, creating a reliable emergency communication system among all the Greene County towns. “During [Tropical Storm Irene], the phone lines were out, we couldn’t communicate with anyone on the Mountaintop from the valley, where our EOC [emergency operations center] is,” said Greene County Legislator and Chairman of the Public Safety Committee William Lawrence, a Republican (and WGXC volunteer programmer) from Cairo, where the emergency operations center is located. “So we had to actually send Sheriff’s patrols up with written messages to talk to people in those village towns,” he said. “Which was a real pain, so we decided we had to do something about our communications towers.” A $890,000 New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services grant would fund project on the Windham Mountain ski resort. Windham Mountain has already granted the county permission to install the tower, and the town of Jewett agreed to transfer the parcel of land, which will hold the 135-foot tower and equipment shelter in a 50- by 50-foot fenced compound, to the county at no cost. The town also granted an exemption from local zoning law and the communications tower local law that calls for new towers to be combined with existing towers whenever possible. The plan still needs Federal Aviation Administration approval, Federal Communications Commission licensing, and a New York State Department of State building permit. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.