RIDGWAY — An emergency communications tower at the center of a property rights dispute is complicating Elk County’s public safety planning as a key federal funding deadline looms.
At dispute is a 106-foot tall temporary 911 tower owned and operated by the county. While it’s located on the property of Wilcox resident Michael Anderson, the roads that access the tower were blocked off by two gates placed by his neighbors, Terry and Tammy Brawand.
The tower is part of Elk County’s emergency communications network for its 911 center and first responders. It’s considered a “mission critical site” that requires 24/7 access, county personnel told the Elk County Court of Common Pleas in early July.
Elk County got involved in the legal dispute between Anderson and the Brawands in the interest of public safety, it said in court documents. The obstruction of access to the temporary tower has weakened the county’s 911 system and interfered with its plan for a permanent tower, it alleged.
Anderson, a retired electricity line worker, brought the lawsuit against the Brawands in April, alleging that the sisters have encroached on his property.
The nearly 8 acres of disputed land comprise several sets of property rights that both parties claim to own. At stake are issues like who controls roadways and who can access the land, questions complicated by the parties having deeds dating back to 180 years ago.
Anderson says the Brawands disrupted his mail service, took away several signs from his property, and installed locked gates on roads that belong to him, according to the complaint.
The sisters took over management of the estate of their father, William Brawand, after his death in October 2021. As part of that, they now run three oil and gas wells located on Anderson’s land, which are accessed via roads in the disputed area.
The Brawands argue their oil and gas lease grants them the ability to decide whether and which third parties can use the roadways that lead to their wells. Despite Anderson owning the surface of the land, the Brawands contend that he doesn’t have the right to allow vehicles access to the roads if they object.
This ongoing dispute hasn’t directly endangered public safety, said county officials during court hearings in early July, but the disruption of roadway access has caused problems.
One of the tower’s antennas had signal issues intermittently, Elk County Emergency Management Director Mike McAllister testified. Maintenance workers had not been able to repair it or work on the site for more than a year and a half, according to a county contractor responsible for the tower’s maintenance.
Thor Lehman, operations manager for the Ridgway Ambulance Corporation, told the court that if the mobile tower malfunctions, coverage for emergency communications would be cut off in several areas, including campgrounds in Jones Township.
Senior Judge Thomas King Kistler, of Centre County, on July 12 granted an emergency petition ordering the Brawands to remove the gates. It’s “completely reasonable” that access to the tower is unfettered in the interest of public safety, Kistler said.
While the county regained access to the temporary tower following the court order, the dispute between Anderson and the Brawands has not been resolved. The court’s eventual determination could affect Elk County’s 911 system.
The county said its long-term emergency communications plan hangs in the balance.
It was in negotiations with Anderson to build a permanent 911 tower at the same location to support police, fire, and ambulance services, according to court filings. County officials testified that the site’s relatively high elevation would allow better signal and coverage, and said the site’s proximity to electrical power makes it ideal for a permanent tower.
The county intended to use COVID-19 relief funding from the federal government for the construction, which comes with a tight timeline: If officials cannot commit to a spending plan by the end of 2024, they will likely have to forfeit the funds.
It’s not clear how much funding the county would use for the project. The total wasn’t included in court documents, and the county declined to comment for this story.
“There is not adequate time to find a new, better location or negotiate a new lease prior to the ARPA funds expiring,” the county wrote in its petition to intervene in the case, referring to the American Rescue Plan Act. “This would be an irreparable loss.”
But the Brawands questioned whether the county had fully explored other possible locations for the new permanent tower.
A previous tower had been located just across the road on the Brawands’ property — until they gave the county the boot in 2022.
In 2010, the late William Brawand agreed to host a 140-foot tall 911 tower and an equipment shed owned by the Wilcox Volunteer Fire Department on his property. The setup — including Elk County communications equipment housed inside the shed — supported emergency communications throughout the Jones Township area.
Terry and Tammy Brawand told Spotlight PA in a written statement that they discovered Elk County Emergency Management had added various fixtures to the shed that were not permissible under the 2010 agreement. They also said the county let their father shoulder the higher utility costs unknowingly. They considered the agreement null and void when they took over the estate.
In June 2022, the sisters sent a new lease offer to the county asking for $42,000 per year to keep the tower and equipment shed on their property — a price too high for the county.
Elk County Chief Clerk Patrick Straub emailed the county commissioners on the day they received the proposal: “Looks like we’ll be moving the tower.”
With little more than a month to vacate the Brawands’ land, county officials drew up a plan in two parts: They would install a temporary emergency communications tower nearby so that service would not be interrupted, and they would identify a location to build a permanent tower.
Michael Anderson could assist with both. He said he wanted to support first responders: “My way of helping them,” he told Spotlight PA.
Elk County paid Anderson $1 for the temporary agreement. By Aug. 1, 2022, the mobile tower — less than a mile west of the old site — was up and running.
The county paid $20,390 to its radio system maintainer to remove the equipment from the Brawand property, prepare the new site on Anderson’s land, and get the tower operational, according to records obtained by Spotlight PA.
In both court testimony and a statement to Spotlight PA, the sisters said they were not notified that the 911 tower would be installed on Anderson’s land. They argued that the placement of the new temporary tower and the work done to clear the site jeopardized their nearby oil and gas operation.
The county said they considered other locations for the tower but didn’t investigate them seriously. The reasoning? “Because this one works,” county contractor Karl Hosterman, who maintains its radio towers, said in his court testimony.
The Brawands said they suffered financially because several potential buyers interested in their mineral lease were turned off by the tower and the dispute associated with it.
The court will eventually rule on the ownership of the disputed land, but it will take time. Citing ongoing litigation, county clerk Straub declined to comment for this story.
Anderson told Spotlight PA he would still welcome a permanent tower on his property, but it’s up to the county to decide where one will ultimately go — and the federal funding deadline steadily approaches.
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