WATSON — Lewis County's felled emergency radio tower in Crystal Dale is to be replaced next month.

"If everything goes the way it's supposed to go, we should be in good shape in five to six weeks," county Emergency Services Director James M. Martin said.

County officials plan to contract with Aerial Erectors, Lowville, for $54,339 to erect a 180-foot-tall free-standing tower at the former tower site off Erie Canal Road in the town of Watson, with preliminary site work to be done by county highway workers.

"About half of that will be covered by insurance," Legislator John O. Boyd, D-New Bremen, chairman of the legislative Courts and Law Committee, reported at Tuesday's legislators meeting.

Police and Firemen's Insurance Association, through which the county holds liability insurance on the tower, is expected to cover the cost of replacing the former tower, along with the estimated $16,707 worth of radio equipment and microwave dishes on it.

Despite the higher cost, county officials decided to put up a free-standing tower with a cement base, rather than another one requiring guy wires to anchor it, because a free-standing one would require less maintenance and be more stable.

A county highway worker was clearing brush from around the tower Sept. 16 when a guy wire caught on his tractor's exhaust pipe, causing the wire to snap and the tower to bend and twist. It was felled the next day by releasing a few of the other wires.

Officials from JPJ Electronic Communications Inc., Yorkville, which services the county's emergency radio system, have been able to locate all of the needed replacement equipment, and it should all be on hand by the time the new tower goes up, Mr. Martin said. That includes a low-band antenna used primarily by fire departments that, had one needed to be special ordered, could have taken three to four months to get up, he said.

Since the Crystal Dale tower went down, radio equipment mounted on the WWTI television tower outside of Copenhagen, which regularly covers only the northern and western parts of the county, has been the county's main emergency transmitter.

The loss of the Crystal Dale tower also essentially knocked out the county's third tower off Smith Road near Constableville. However, the county, with assistance from JPJ, Frontier Communications and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, recently got it back up and running through a new telephone connection, providing much better coverage to the southern part of the county, Mr. Martin said.

JPJ officials also helped shore up some weaker coverage areas by using a portable, 50-foot antenna outside the Public Safety Building on outer Stowe Street, he said.

"We're suffering some, but it's not as bad as not having any antennas at all," Mr. Martin said.

County residents should know that fire and emergency agencies can be dispatched as quickly as ever, the emergency services director said.

"They have just as good protection as they did before the microwave tower went down," he said.

The main problem is with continued spotty coverage for hand-held personal radios, especially in the Lowville area, Mr. Martin said. "The outskirts is getting it better than downtown Lowville," he said.

However, he said, he has compiled a list of cell phone numbers for several members of each fire department that can be used for direct communication, if necessary.

"We thank everybody for being patient and working with us," he said. "It's been a good community effort."