BROOKINGS — The old, empty water tower on Sixth Street in Brookings will be torn down at some point, but before that can happen a new home must be found for the communications equipment it still hosts.

That new home, councilors learned at Tuesday night’s Brookings City Council meeting, is slated for 1461 Sixth St., a piece of land that is just north of Tropical Smoothie Cafe and west of McDonald’s. It’s expected to be in the form of a 171-foot tower, and isn’t all that far from the water tower.

“It’s been a challenge to find a location that’s suitable for this type of tower, and we think we nailed it,” Swiftel Operations Manager Curt Kabris told councilors. “We can get the objective met, get the water tank freed up, (and) move the antennas over.”

The equipment attached to the water tower is basically a focus point for communications in and around Brookings, with wireless and two-way radio assets that are a mix of private and public ownership.

“It is going to be very well-built — it’ll take a lot of capacity,” he said of the proposed tower.

It’ll have to be in order to host what’s currently on the water tower.

“Right now it serves two very large carriers … it is their anchor site in Brookings,” Kabris said. “It’s not only serving the campus, the residential, it’s hitting the shopping corridor along Sixth Street, serving 911 — it is a heavily, heavily used site.”

The goal is to begin work on the new telecom tower on Aug. 1, which is expected to take two to three months. The old water tower is expected to be torn down no later than fall 2025.

The ordinance dealing with the issue — Ordinance 24-019, as it’s formally known — will have its second reading and action at the June 11 meeting of the City Council.

In other business on Tuesday night, city councilors:

• Observed and took part in, alongside honorees’ families, a ceremony that honored two lead dispatchers — Alyssa del Plaine and Emily Edstrom — and pinned four new officers in the city’s police department: Trevor Donbroski, Devon Isler, Kevin Peterson and Lisa Walterman.
• Heard the first-quarter sales tax revenues report from Finance Director Ashley Rentsch. She said the quarter came in strong overall at $5.37 million, an increase from last year’s first-quarter income of $4.78 million.
• Heard a presentation from the Brookings Police Department Foundation on the role it plays in assisting the community’s law enforcers in their times of need.
• Gave the green light on a 6-0 vote to approve an amendment to a project whose overall goal remains focused on improving the intersection of 22^nd Avenue South and 20^th Street South. This is especially important with the recent opening of Exit 130, Brookings’ third interchange with Interstate 29.
• OK’d, on a 6-0 vote, a temporary alcohol license from the Brookings Cubs Baseball Group to operate at Bob Shelden Field during this year’s season.
• Agreed to, on a 6-0 vote, renew annual malt licenses for establishments that have failed an alcohol compliance check within the past year.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.