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State moves to renew decades-old tower leases as SERVES radio network is built
Summary
Kentucky emergency-communications staff told the House committee that they are renewing long-expiring tower leases for the Kentucky Emergency Warning System (CUES) while building the SERVES statewide trunk radio network, reporting wins such as $0 interagency leases and listing dozens of sites out for bid.
A Kentucky State Police radio-program representative told the House Committee on Safety and Judiciary that the Kentucky Emergency Warning System (CUES) — a microwave backhaul network of 53 tower sites — is undergoing lease renewals and upgrades to support the statewide SERVES trunk radio project.
The staff member said the system supports multiple state and local public-safety communications systems, educational telemetry and other services. The CUES sites include a mix of state-owned locations, other governmental properties and privately owned land, he said, and many of the privately held leases were established in the 1970s and are set to expire in 2026–28.
To maintain the Commonwealth's investment in the network and to support the new statewide SERVES radio system (designed and built by Kentucky State Police for shared public-safety use), staff and the Finance Cabinet's Division of Real Properties have engaged firms with land-leasing expertise. The representative said eight existing leases were out for renewal bid at the time of the hearing and 11 more were scheduled for release later in the quarter. The counties named for the first set included Clinton, Livingston, Crittenden, McLean and Todd; the next group included Christian, Muhlenberg, Caldwell, Logan, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Allen, Daviess and Ohio counties.
The witness described several procurement successes: the Pine Ridge tower site in Wolfe County was relocated from private property onto land managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the Daniel Boone National Forest under a long-term, zero-dollar interagency land lease; three additional zero-dollar interagency leases were executed with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for sites in Campbell, Owsley and Robertson counties; and the program built a site on Kentucky Transportation Cabinet property in Webster County.
Staff acknowledged outstanding work: counting leases already executed, they said roughly 97 lease documents remain to be processed. The witness explained that the count includes multiple leases per physical site in some cases (access, anchors and other easements), so that the number of leases may translate to about 66 distinct tower locations. He gave one example of a title problem delaying renewal: a corporate landowner had changed its corporate name without updating deed records, requiring a quiet-title correction before a new lease can be signed.
Representative Sharp told the committee this is an officer-safety issue in his district and asked for a completion date. The radio-program witness said he was "incredibly optimistic" the new lease process is working and that KSP had procured equipment for part of phase 3 (covering Post 8, Post 11 and Post 14 regions, including Boyd County in the eastern region). He did not provide a firm statewide completion date and told lawmakers that construction timelines — not lease acquisition alone — will determine final service delivery schedules.
The witness also described short-term support to local agencies: surplus older radios that are compatible with local systems were tuned and redistributed to counties with immediate needs.
No committee vote or formal action on leases occurred during the hearing.
