A plan to temporarily move law enforcement radio equipment because of pending work on an Austin water tower is moving forward quickly.

On Monday, the Mower County Board of Commissioners and the local law enforcement committee both approved a roughly $165,000 project that would move equipment vital to local authorities from a water tower on 14th Street Northwest to the Twin Towers apartment building downtown.

The move is necessary because the water tower is set for a new, lead-free paint job, work that is slated to begin April 6 and last for about three months. Crews have said the equipment would get in the way of their work and could be damaged in the process if it did stay up.

Councilman Brian McAlister, who is on the law enforcement committee, said the move has to be done to maintain radio communication between local police officers, firefighters and first responders.

“It’s not like there are a lot of options here,” he said.

The Mower County Board approved about $32,000 of county costs for the project on March 10. Yesterday, the county board approved payment of up to 50 percent of the remaining project costs, which the county and city are expected to pay jointly.

McAlister and the rest of council will be the next to vote on the project when they convene April 5, just one day before tower work is set to begin. The deal before the city will be to essentially split the cost of the temporary move with the county.

The move to Twin Towers will allow law enforcement to maintain communication virtually uninterrupted, but the temporary location will have it’s restrictions, Sheriff Terese Amazi said. That’s because the water tower location is an ideal central hub, whereas Twin Towers is not, meaning some communication may be limited and some procedures may need to be altered.

However, radio equipment will likely be headed back to the tower area after this spring’s work is complete, Amazi said. The sheriff said the good location is worth the occasional trouble when water tower work pops up, though she did say she hopes officials get an earlier notice in the future — Amazi said she only became aware of this spring’s project, commissioned by Austin Utilities, last fall, although it had been planned well before that.

— Reporter Jason Schoonover contributed to this report