Damaged road to 911 tower in Arlington area could jeopardize emergency services

Published 11:05 pm Friday, July 24, 2009

ARLINGTON — Emergency agencies that rely on a key radio tower for 911 service are concerned about public safety because the only road to the tower is impassable.

The 60-year-old former logging road was severely damaged during winter storms.

Run by Snohomish County Emergency Radio System, the tower northeast of Arlington serves emergency responders, including police and fire, as well as Community Transit and the Snohomish County Public Utility District.

Officials would have to spend a lot of money to lease a helicopter to get up to the tower on Frailey Mountain for any reason. During a power outage, for instance, they would need to ferry crews to the site to keep the backup generators running, Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall said.

The tower is one of 17 run by the emergency radio system, serving all of Snohomish County and parts of Skagit and King counties. Should power go out to the Frailey tower, the entire system would be compromised, said Kendall, who serves as board chairman for the radio system.

“If one tower goes down, it overloads the others and could cause real problems,” Kendall said. “We need the road situation solved as quickly as possible. It’s critical to emergency operations across the county.”

The state Department of Natural Resources manages the road, which completely collapsed at several points in the two-mile stretch of damage.

DNR officials are talking now about abandoning the road and building a new one from the north side of the mountain.

That doesn’t please an Everett woman who owns 40 acres next to the radio system’s tower. Sue Sherman has an easement agreement that allows workers from the Snohomish County Emergency Radio System to get to the tower through her property.

Since the storm damage, instead of a 10-minute drive north from Highway 530, Sherman can only get to her property by hiking about four hours through the woods. She hopes to build a home there someday.

Sherman believes a lack of road maintenance by Natural Resources and poor installation of a new power line up to the mountain contributed to the washout of the road.

“The drainage along the road wasn’t working, the power-line work weakened it, the snowmelt saturated the road, and then it just fell away,” Sherman said. “And now I’m landlocked and my property is going to crap.”

Somebody just needs to fix the road, she said.

“The radio system got power to the tower, but now I can’t get to my place,” Sherman said.

Emergency radio system officials feel for Sherman, but figuring out what to do about the road is a process that’s just begun, Kendall said.

“If I could fix that road today, I would,” Kendall said. “We have engineers evaluating the road. If it can’t be repaired, we have to find another solution.”

The washed-out road isn’t one the state needs, said Candace Johnson, assistant manager of DNR’s northwest region in Sedro-Woolley. It’s too costly to maintain and too costly to repair, she said.

“It’s in an area where streams make it susceptible to more damage,” Johnson said. “And when that road fails, it sends sediment into creeks that affects water quality and fish habitat that we are trying to protect.”

The estimated cost to repair the road is as much as $500,000. Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief money might be available, but not as soon as DNR would need it, Johnson said.

A potential timber sale on the north side of Frailey Mountain might open up an area where a new road to the tower could be built next summer, she said. Whether that would help Sherman is another story.

“It’s not our obligation to build roads for folks,” Johnson said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427, gfiege@heraldnet.com.