To the relief of city and county officials, the cost to move law enforcement radio equipment because of pending work on an Austin water tower will be much lower than expected.

The project, which will move equipment from a water tower on 14th Street Northwest to the Twin Towers apartment building downtown, was slated to cost $165,000 between City Council and the county board, with roughly $32,000 already paid by the county.

However, officials announced Monday that the bulk of the remaining price tag will be covered by ENHANCE 911 grant funds.

The ENHANCE 911 grant program, short for Ensuring Needed Help Arrives Near Callers Employing 911, is a federal program enacted in 2004 that provides money to progressive-minded emergency response initiatives. Minnesota overall received nearly $2 billion from the program to disperse to cities like Austin.

With funding in place, the city and county wasted no time in starting to move the radio equipment — that process actually began Monday, with a local wireless company doing the work.

By mid-April, the water tower should be drained, at which point sandblasting will begin. Ultimately, the tower is getting a new, lead-free paint job that should be complete by July.

When the work is done, the radio equipment is slated to return to the water tower, which has been identified as an ideal communications point for local authorities.

However, the equipment would almost certainly have been damaged had it remained in place during the work on the tower.