Sheriff's tower awaits fiber link

FINDLAY — A 300-foot Hancock County Sheriff's Office radio tower behind the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, on County Road 140, is awaiting a fiber optic connection before it can be used. Construction of the $769,885 tower was completed last spring. The Hancock County commissioners are now awaiting engineering plans to install an underground fiber connection from the tower to the Sheriff's Office. Those plans could be completed by mid-July, Commissioner William Bateson said. No cost estimate is available yet for the fiber connection. The commissioners last September voted to pay $468,000 over the next 30 years to use Findlay schools' fiber optic strands for the tower and county offices west of the city. Now they are looking to make the fiber connection. The new tower replaced a 140-foot tower which was taken down to make room for construction of the new Probate/Juvenile Court building on West Main Cross Street. That 40-year-old tower was outdated and had a stress fracture from wear and tear. The new tower location has the advantage of being about 80 feet higher at ground level than the downtown location.