Putnam 911 Getting New Tower Lights

New lighting systems for two radio towers on the eastern side of Putnam County should be installed in the next month.

911 Assistant Director Josh Womack said the lights will replace old halogen strobe systems the towers use in order to be FAA-compliant. Bids for the system this week came in on budget, under $25,000.

“So with LED technology it’s brighter,” Womack said. “You don’t have to replace bulbs on it, the LEDs last for a longer period of time. So just upgrading the lighting I think is our due diligence to make sure we’re keeping everybody safe, especially those in the air.”

Womack said the new lights use a dual beacon system that switches between white and red lighting depending on the time of day. The county decided to install the lights after a Houston air crash caused by faulty lighting.

Womack said the lights will also have an infrared sensor on top of them so aircraft can detect them from below. Womack said the lights should come in under $25,000 and he hopes to have them installed in the next thirty days.

“We’ve gone through our process of researching those and so we’ll just call the company up and say hey, we want to get started on this project and get this going,” Womack said.

Womack said the department just opened the two bids it received for the systems Monday and has decided which company it plans to use. Womack said the current systems are still working but they are several years old and use outdated technology.

“It’s one of those thing if you don’t see them every day they’re kind of out of sight, out of mind rather,” Womack said. “And so we wanted to make sure we were compliant in making sure that our tower were seen.”