Communications Tower

Sykesville hopes to call a halt to tower construction just outside its limits.In a 3-2 decision, the Town Council voted Monday to lodge an appeal of a county-approved telecommunications tower on Hollenberry Road, within a mile of the town limits.The appeal is based on a 12-year-old contract between the town and county, which guarantees each government site-plan acceptance for construction projects in the town and for a mile outside its borders.Town officials said the county violated the terms of the contract by not submitting plans for the 200-foot tower less than a mile from the northern edge of town.

Washington -- Is the pursuit of fewer dropped calls leading to more dropping birds? The lights atop communications towers that warn pilots to stay away can have a come-hither effect on birds - killing millions of migrating warblers, thrushes and other species every year. During bad weather, birds can mistake tower lights for the stars they use to navigate. They will circle a tower trancelike, often until they crash into the structure, its guy wires or other birds. Sometimes disoriented birds simply plummet to the ground from exhaustion.

A petition for a special exception to allow a 225-foot mobile communications tower in Pasadena has been denied by Anne Arundel County Administrative Hearing Officer Robert C. Wilcox.In the decision Thursday, Mr. Wilcox said he denied West Shore Communications' petition because there was no testimony to show why a 164-foot water tower on the property behind the Eastern District Police station could not be used for communications antennas.About a dozen angry residents from Chesterfield and Westwood Manor protested the company's application at a June 1 hearing.

Carroll County's seven-member Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved site plans yesterday for a communications tower in the northeast part of the county, signaling a major step forward in filling a long-standing gap in its emergency services. "I think this is a milestone as to improving life safety in Carroll County," said Scott Campbell, acting administrator of support services for the county's Office of Public Safety. "This is a critically important site for Carroll County volunteer emergency services.

An Anne Arundel County hearing examiner tried to appease angry Pasadena residents yesterday by trying to find alternatives to a 225-foot mobile communications tower proposed for the area.At least a dozen angry Chesterfield and Westwood Manor residents protested an application for a special exception and a variance application that was submitted by West Shore Communications Co. The exceptions would let the company build the tower behind the Eastern District police station on Mountain Road.

If his neighbors had known someone planned to build a 103-foot-tall tower across the street from them, they probably wouldn't have bought their $200,000 houses, Phillip Bowers told the county administrative hearing officer yesterday.The cellular communications tower planned by Nextel Communications would ruin the aesthetics of his neighborhood in Linthicum, and the access road could become "a nice little haven" for teen-age drinking and drug parties, Mr. Bowers said.Nextel is requesting a special exception to build a 102.5-foot-tall communications tower on 1.3 acres off Camp Meade Road south of Andover Road zoned for residential use. The company also is requesting a variance because the current zoning limits principal structures to a maximum height of 25 feet.

Two neighborhood associations in the Linthicum-Shipley area won't fight a Columbia company's request to build a cellular communications tower, if the company agrees to a covenant that will be drawn up tomorrow .Last week, the Linthicum-Shipley Improvement Association voted to support Nextel Communications' request for a special exception to build a 102.5-foot-tall communications tower off Camp Meade Road, south of Andover Road. Nextel will lease 1.33 acres of the Camp Meade Road property for at least five years from BWI Limited Partnership.

The Piney Run Neighborhood Action Committee plans to pack a Jan. 27 zoning hearing with 100 people opposed to a 200-foot telecommunications tower on land zoned for conservation near their neighborhood."

Thirteen Frizzellburg residents are challenging a Carroll Board of Zoning Appeals decision to allow a Cellular One communications tower in the 1400 block of Richardson Road.The residents filed an appeal in Carroll Circuit Court on Friday.At a zoning hearing in July, some residents testified that the tower might cause health problems and would be an "eyesore" that could lower property values.The zoning appeals board voted 2-1 to give Cellular One permission to build a 250-foot tower on the Robert E. and Audrey J. Warner farm at 1418 Richardson Road.

WELL, IT COULD have doubled as a reviewing stand. That's one way to view the snafu over Carroll County's plans to build an emergency radio tower right in the middle of the parade grounds at the state police training center under construction near Sykesville.Instead, the site of the 260-foot tower will be moved about 500 feet, still on the state Springfield Hospital Center land but away from the public safety training facilities. The extra cost of the $140,000 tower will be about $50,000; Carroll officials say they will ask the state for reimbursement.

After seven years of trying to improve Carroll County's emergency communications system through the construction of a tower in the Lineboro area, county public safety officials are close to breaking ground. "It's moving along very well, and it's well overdue," said County Commissioner Perry L. Jones Jr., who received an update at yesterday's quarterly meeting with the county's emergency services group. "Hopefully, we'll have this thing up and running before cold weather comes." But first, county officials have to receive approval for the site plans from the county's Planning and Zoning Commission, which has scheduled a review of the plans at its meeting Tuesday.

The Harford County Council adopted an amended bill last week on public safety communications towers that rebuffed an attempt by the county administration to exempt the towers completely from county zoning code. The amendments define public safety uses very specifically and move the approval process for new towers, or extensions of existing ones, to the County Council. The amendments require a public hearing before the council, with ample notice to residents, sets limitations on signage and equipment building sizes and also requires balloon tests or other impact simulations be undertaken to allow residents to see where and how high a tower will be. The changes, introduced by council President Robert S. Wagner and Councilman Robert G. Cassilly, were approved unanimously.

Lawyers for the County Council and administration of James M. Harkins met late last week to begin hashing out amendments to a bill proposed by the county executive that would exempt public safety communications towers entirely from the zoning code. The county is working on a $23 million upgrade to its two-decade-old emergency communications system, and nine communications towers are a key part of the plan, officials say. The county wants to eliminate dead spots in coverage, both outdoors and inside buildings, where emergency workers cannot communicate.

The last step in securing a site for a tower that would improve the county's emergency radio communications was taken yesterday when the Carroll commissioners voted to buy a necessary easement for the project. The commissioners voted to enter into a $47,200 option to buy the rights to use 7 acres for a road and a "fall zone" around the tower, which will be built on a neighboring 6-acre property owned by Donald J. and Catherine L. Fasca Sr. on Alesia-Lineboro Road. The county signed an option to purchase the Fasca property for $100,000 in May. County officials have searched for a tower site since July 1997, when the county started the 800-megahertz 911 emergency communications system, which uses seven towers to transmit radio messages throughout the county.

Five years after county officials began searching for a site to build a tower that would eliminate a gap in emergency radio communications in the northeast area of the county, the Carroll commissioners moved yesterday toward buying land for the project. The commissioners voted unanimously to sign an option for the county to buy for $125,000 a 3-acre parcel south of Lineboro, where the tower could be built as early as this summer. The county must advertise the agreement and wait 15 days for public comment before returning the proposal to the commissioners to complete the purchase, said Douglas Myers, Department of Public Works director.

Delaying tower imperils safety of Ellicott City The construction of the new communications tower in Ellicott City has been delayed for several months by the Federal Communications Commission ("Tower on hold pending review," Feb. 8). This allows for review of the effect the structure would have on Ellicott City's historic district. But the fact is that the tower would greatly help preserve property and save lives by providing adequate communications for emergency service crews. As chief of the Ellicott City Volunteer Fire Department, I have a number of concerns over the interruption of plans to build the communications tower.

After seven years of trying to improve Carroll County's emergency communications system through the construction of a tower in the Lineboro area, county public safety officials are close to breaking ground. "It's moving along very well, and it's well overdue," said County Commissioner Perry L. Jones Jr., who received an update at yesterday's quarterly meeting with the county's emergency services group. "Hopefully, we'll have this thing up and running before cold weather comes." But first, county officials have to receive approval for the site plans from the county's Planning and Zoning Commission, which has scheduled a review of the plans at its meeting Tuesday.

Carroll County public safety officials might have another option for a communications tower in the Lineboro area, where emergency radio signals don't always reach. Howard S. "Buddy" Redman Jr., director of the county Office of Public Safety, said Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials approached him last week about putting an antenna on a BGE power line along the Pennsylvania border near Lineboro. "It's apparently one of those real high tower lines on an elevation 900 feet above sea level," Redman said.