Tower

The National Tower at Gettysburg, a looming landmark on this hallowed Civil War battlefield for more than a quarter of a century, crumpled and dropped in a three-second implosion yesterday. With it went a symbol of commercial intrusion on a sacred landscape, Bruce Babbitt, the U.S. secretary of the interior, said in a speech before two cannons were fired and the crowd of thousands counted down from 10. Just after the crowd reached one, there was a loud boom, the tower's two-story observation deck shook, and the tower fell in. "It was only going to go one way, and that was down," said Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition Inc., of Phoenix, Md., which donated its services to demolish the 393-foot tower.

As the largest expansion at Carroll Hospital Center heads toward completion this summer, its centerpiece -- a four-story tower that will double the number and size of private rooms at the county's primary medical facility -- will be unveiled one floor at a time, starting tomorrow. The tower's debut signals the homestretch of the biggest phase of the $80 million project, which broke ground in June 2002. Already completed are an emergency department, lobby, gift shop and front entrance. Patients in the progressive care unit will be temporarily transferred to the second floor of the tower, which was built atop the hospital's south wing, while the unit is renovated.

Robert H. Grabner Jr., vice president/senior project manager of the tower division of WCI Mid-Atlantic U.S. Region Inc., has assumed responsibility of the Plaza Residences development, a 23-story tower planned for downtown Columbia. Grabner replaces William Rowe, who recently left WCI to work with another development firm in the area. Grabner will also be responsible for WCI's tower development activities in Virginia, which include the Club on Quincy, a mixed-use condominium development in Arlington.

CARROLL'S COMMISSIONERS are faced with a choice: They can build a 200-foot radio tower for the county's emergency services system at Springfield Hospital Center for about $300,000, or they can avail themselves of Cellular One's offer of free space on its Hollenberry Road tower.Simple choice, right? Wrong.Though hard-pressed to make budget ends meet, county officials should not even think twice about Cellular One's offer. They should reject it.At a time when the commissioners are scrambling to save pennies, the allure of getting free antenna space is considerable.

After six hours of testimony, which frequently came down to semantics, the county Board of Zoning Appeals did not reach a decision yesterday on the appeal of a stop-work order for a telecommunications tower in Sykesville.Since West Shore Communications announced plans to build the 200-foot tower on conservation-zoned private property along Hollenberry Road near Sykesville, the project has been the subject of heated debate, public hearings and several appeals to stop construction.Construction began, with a permit issued by the county Oct. 28, but was called to a halt three days later.

While workers shear and torch the heaping metal remains of the imploded National Tower at Gettysburg, preservationists who once fought for its dismantling are selling bolts, light bulbs and signs - souvenirs from the tower - as a fund-raiser. This is the last piece of an aggressive, quarter-century-long campaign by preservationists to acquire and destroy the tower they said desecrated the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, regarded by many historians as the pivotal contest of the Civil War. "Our members felt this was a significant piece of the victory, " said Vickey Monrean, surveying a shelf in her office storage room lined with random pieces of the 393-foot tower, which was destroyed July 3 before thousands of spectators.

BOONSBORO - On a clear day, the tree-lined ridge of South Mountain, which separates Washington and Frederick counties, can be seen from miles around - from the fields where soldiers battled on the way to the bloody fighting at Antietam, from the Appalachian Trail that attracts millions of visitors a year, from the town of Burkittsville that looks much as it did in the 19th century. Unlike the more pristine foothills nearby, South Mountain carries a tower town of sorts - a fire lookout tower from the 1930s, a cluttered microwave tower, a T-shaped tower belonging to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Carroll school officials and Winfield residents, citing health and other concerns, yesterday opposed Cellular One's plans for a 200-foot tower near Winfield Elementary School.Cellular One of Washington and Baltimore has asked the county Board of Zoning Appeals to allow the company to build a 200-foot tower and an equipment building at 4416 Salem Bottom Road. Mobile telephone communications towers are allowed as conditional uses.Cellular One wants to lease the site from Charles and Dianna Coon.

RESIDENTS OF a community near Annapolis called Riverview Manor have implored officials not to permit AT&T Wireless to build a 130-foot cellular phone tower across from their homes.It's a plea often heard these days. But if this tower can't be built, it will be difficult for any communications company to place a tower in Anne Arundel County.More people are carrying cellular and wireless phones. More providers are in the business.That means more and more towers to transmit and receive the necessary radio signals.

Government officials hope that months of debate over an emergency communications tower in Ellicott City - sparked by plans to put it near the historic district - will conclude soon, but they say they're stuck in limbo. State officials who want to build the tower, county administrators who want to use it and preservationists with the Maryland Historical Trust drafted a "memorandum of agreement" last month that outlines ways the state would limit the tower's impact if it were built next to Howard County District Court, several hundred feet from Ellicott City's historic district.