Warren County won’t be accepting a radio tower as a gift after hearing a report on the condition of the structure Thursday.

L.W. Callaway III, director of the Warren County Emergency Management Office, and Charles Grant of Communications Specialists, told the board of the offer from Tower Ventures of Memphis at the board’s informal meeting last week.

Affixed to the tower is one of the radio repeaters for the community’s 800 megahertz trunking radio system used for law enforcement, fire and emergency communications. The company had told the county it intended to take the tower down and said the community had until May 31 to remove its antenna and equipment from the site. As an alternative, the company offered to give the tower to the county.

At Thursday’s informal meeting, Callaway and Grant returned and advised supervisors to say, “No thanks.”

Callaway gave board members the summary of a tower condition report performed by an independent company. That report cited many deficiencies, including improper tension on the guy wires, the fact the tower is twisted and out of plumb and major corrosion on the legs.

“The main thing is the tower is not safe,” Callaway said. The report “basically says don’t walk under the tower because it’s going to fall down.”

Georgia Lynn, president of the Vicksburg Warren Humane Society, and the board discussed a possible site for the society’s animal shelter. The current facility is too small.

Board President David McDonald of District 1 said Thursday he had been talking to Walter Lyons, district engineer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, and Dick Hall, MDOT Central District commissioner, about the land and buildings on U.S. 80 east of Beechwood formerly used for the department’s local engineering office and maintenance shop.

“I would like to go look at it,” Lynn said.

In other business, supervisors were told the Vicksburg Bridge Commission wants to dispose of a small piece of property in Delta, La. Commission attorney Bobby Bailess explained state law requires the county to first declare the land surplus and then sell it to the highest bidder.