Saturday, April 21, 2012 6:24 pm

The 180-foot tower phase of construction for the new Communications Tower on Pleasant Ridge Road was completed on Wednesday.

A 10-wheel, 175-foot tall crane contracted by Communications Evolutions of McMinnville, was brought in to raise the remaining tower sections so they could be bolted in place by three installation technicians that must manually climb the tower. The last tower section being 60’ in length topped with a lightning rod.

The next phase will be installing the concrete foundations that will support the concrete communications building and backup generator.

The communications building plans have been approved by the State Fire Marshalls Office and is currently being constructed and is scheduled to ship to the site in about three weeks. Another crane will have to be brought in and lift the 22,000 lb building and generator onto their foundations.

The three pictured tower climbers are Tim Moffitt, Shawn Clemons, and James Rankhorn.