Encampment opposes new tower

Encampment Mayor Greg Salisbury was not present for the town council meeting on November 12 ,. Councilmember Gary Stull acted as mayor pro-tem.

After the minutes and financials were reviewed and approved, Josh Craig, president of Mother Mountain Anglers, spoke. He said a friend and long time community member, Dan Nelius, passed away the week before. Craig was there to request permission to use the Opera House to hold a benefit for Lesley Nelius.

He assured the council that the Anglers would adhere to all social distancing rules and regulations.

Craig said, “We want to maintain as safe an environment as possible. We just need to remember to do for our community and not let this take control of us. At what point are we going to stop caring for our neighbors? You know what I mean? Its one of those things we need to carry on no matter what. Like I said, we’ll do everything as safe as we possibly can.”

The Encampment Town Council voted, with Councilmember, Shannon Fagan abstaining from the vote, to approve the benefit which will take place on December 5. The time has not yet been set. Craig said that they wanted to make sure they were able to procure a venue before making any concrete plans.

A brief update on the sewer lagoon project was next on the agenda. Kassey Westring of North Fork Engineering told the council that they had received the procurement agreement and they are on schedule as Jon Nelson had discussed in previous town council meetings.

The bulk of the meeting centered around public comments for the conditional use permit for Union Wireless to install a new 80 foot high tower in the town of Encampment. Two representatives from Union Wireless were present.

Josh Craig was the first to speak out.

“I feel like there are a lot of unanswered questions about this thing. I recall a few months ago, we had the same discussion about another tower going in town. I think its time we decide what we want for Encampment. I would sure like to see that we just don’t have towers in town. I don’t like the idea that they take up the view from anybody and I’m a little nervous about this whole 5G thing and this tower being placed next right next to the school, said craig.”. Credible doctors say that this affects children, especially at a young age, we just don’t know much about this microwave that it puts off and at this time I feel that there are too many unanswered questions to allow this tower to be placed in town. I think the last time somebody wanted to build a tower, we set a precedence about there is a lot of land outside of town. I just think its an unnecessary thing. So I’d like to voice my opposition as a citizen of Encampment against this tower.”

Bob Herring, Claudia Wilson and other Encampment citizens at the meeting all agreed with Craig’s opposition.

Union Wireless Site Acquisitions Representative Kathy Campbell provided her input, “I want to add that the new tower will help the expansion of the network and the coverage for everyone that seems to be having dropped calls or just not working the way you’d like it work. This expansion will also help our first responders.”

The Federal Government has created a first responders network to ensure that emergency personnel have a reliable network. The new network would require a higher structural load with larger antenna and transponders than what is currently available on the existing 60 foot tower that is in Encampment.

Stull asked if the extension of the tower would provide better coverage. The Union Wireless representative informed the meeting that the town of Riverside would see the most benefit but Encampment would also see an increase in coverage.

Councilmember Kimberly Loftice also voiced her oposition to the tower and asked the Union Wireless representatives if there were any locations outside of Encampment that could be used for the new tower. The representative confirmed there are towers at Needle Peak at Baggot Rocks and Coyote Hill that will also be upgraded and have the first responders network on it.

Stull then asked what would happen if the new tower were to be denied. The representative said that studies would be done to see if reinforcing the existing 60 foot tower would be acceptable under the federal mandates for the first responders network. The first responder network antennas need a certain amount of spacing from Union Wireless’ so that the two do not interfere with each other’s signal.

Ros Herring, Encampment Planning Commission, spoke up citing a letter she had provided to the council, “They want to erect a large non-conforming structure on a conditional use lot in the middle of town that does not fit in with the rest of the surrounding property. The reason was to increase coverage but more importantly to sell space to make more money for them instead of giving its customers better service. They said they weren’t going to go directly in with 5G but possibly in the future. How far in the future? We don’t know, we may never get it because we aren’t a big enough ‘city’ to maybe warrant 5G. So, take your speculations from there. That is what I understood from the last meeting we had at Planning Commission.”

The question was posed to the Union Wireless representatives regarding the current network speeds versus what is needed for the first responders network. The current speed is 3G. The first responders network requires 4G. One of the representatives tried to further explain, “the old antenna that have 3G have less ports so they are smaller and the new ones are multi port antennas so they are able to support multiple wavelengths. So, the old antennas are supporting in the 700-900 mega hertz. The new antenna are 12 port, so they will be able to do that same spectrum and will also have the ability to do 1900-2100 mega hertz. So, on one antenna, you could have three technologies, where the old antennas you could only have one technology. Thats the reason for the antennas getting large. So, like now, 3G you can have the 850 mega hertz spectrum and thats all you have. The new antenna you can have 1900AWS, 700 and 850 all on the same antenna. So instead of getting like 15 mbps, you are getting more like 25-30 mbps”

Fagan voiced her concerns over the proposed 80 foot tower, “My major concern is that it is going in across the street from a future day care and it’s within the same block of our school. With as many doctors reports and studies that they have given out about the rays these towers are giving out it’s not healthy to children for one, then its not healthy to be in a residential area for two, I am definitely not Ok with a future tower of 80 feet with all the extended possibilities (…) I can understand where you are coming from, the future of our first responders, but we have a pretty good first responder radio system right now. And I haven’t had any dropped calls. I can t speak for all. I have also gone out and talked to several community members, many of them say its a very, very, very bad idea for the location that it is in.”

No decision needed to be made during this meeting, so Fagan suggested to the Site Aquisition representative that they have a future discussion with their board for an alternative site given the town’s fears about the frequencies, massive size blocking views and fears of it falling on the school. With that, Stull closed the discussion and the Union Wireless representatives left the meeting.

The rest of the meeting went quickly. The Council passed the Specific Purpose Tax escrow agreement, a lease renewal for the Red Wagon, a new monitoring radar trailer and printer for the Town Hall.

The next regular meeting of the Encampment Town Council will be held at 7 p.m. on December 10, 2020 at the Encampment Town Hall.