One of our many Bayfield Wireless supporters, Town of Bayfield Chairman Tom J. Gordon, visited the Star Route Tower construction site to witness the raising of the new structure into the sky. After months of ground preparation, tower assembly, network engineering, electrical work, and safety preparation, the tower was lifted into the sky in three sections by a 200 foot crane from Superior Wisconsin. Our local Town of Bayfield resident iron worker and tower climber, Cody Bermel, completed putting the 178 foot structure in the sky by bolting on the final two lift sections and releasing the crane at the top.
The winter weather and substantial snow on the hill slowed our progress to a crawl and put us behind our schedule goals by about two months. It was, however, a victory to get the crane in and out of the site before the ground frost conditions caused possible further delays to June. We will now begin the work of cabling the tower and getting the radio gear online so we can begin testing the new Internet service with trial customers on the western side of the Town of Bayfield during the month of April 2019.