Mineola finally has a location for a new communications tower for public safety, but it will cost another $60,000.

As Fire Marshal David Madsen explained, if the communications company that owned the tower would have agreed to turn it over to the city initially, it would have cost less time and money.

The city was using the tower, whose most recent operator was Suddenlink, and a combination of problems with the equipment and the company planning to decommission it led the city to look elsewhere when the company would not agree to a deal with the city.

That led to the city seeking other locations to no avail, finally settling on a corner of the Mineola Nature Preserve.

Objections to that location led to a lengthy approval process that had yet to be resolved when the company finally decided to deed the tower site off FM 49 to the city.

But that process took a year, which meant that the city’s bid for the new tower was no longer valid, and the price went up.

Madsen also noted that there was a lot more junk on the property than anticipated, which the city will be responsible for clearing.

Those factors increased the cost of the project by $60,000, which led Madsen to request those funds be allocated from the capital projects account. That will be added to the $250,000 budgeted for the project.

It was approved unanimously by the city council Monday night.

Madsen said the next step is getting the approval for the tower from the federal government.

Madsen did note that this site will allow the city’s public safety services better radio coverage as it will be 60 to 80 feet higher than the nature preserve site.