Verizon coming to Alexander

The Alexander City Council accepted the recommendation of the city planning commission to approve the request for a building permit to construct a cell tower in South Alexander. The tower will be built on property, along Brookwood Road, owned by the Saline County Water Works and Sanitary Sewer Public Facilities Board. The property is the location of the sewer plant that serves most of South Alexander.

Vertical Bridge representative Tracy Gill was unable to attend the council's October 16 meeting. In his place Planning Commission Chairman Michael Huck relayed to council members the information Gill provided to the planning commission.

Gill attended the October 10 planning commission meeting to explain the construction plans and answer questions. Aside from explaining why the tower had to be built in that location, the other question involved the potential effects of radiation from 5G transmissions.

Verizon hired Vertical Bridge to find a location in this specific area in order to fill-in dead areas around Alexander. The site also has to be outside the flight path of aircraft flying in and out of Saline County Airport to the west. According to Gill the selected location near the sewer plant is four-feet outside the airport's no-obstruction area. Gill has provided written confirmation from the Federal Aviation Administration approving the location for the cell tower.

Council Member Angela Griffin attended the planning meeting and expressed her concern over the potential threat to 5G radiation. Gill said studies going back to the 1990s show no appreciable effects on humans from 5G radiation. Since the tower will be 195 feet above ground level Gill said someone would have to be in a "cherry picker truck" face-to-face with the antenna to be affected by the electronic radiation.

Since the property is zoned Light Industrial, which allows cell towers, the planning commission and council members only had to concern themselves with the proposed construction plans. Huck provided council members with two diagrams. One of them show the location of the sewer plant and proposed cell tower site using white lines overlaying the tree cover. (See photo below)

Huck explained to council members under Alexander zoning the tower must be a minimum of 30-feet from the nearest property line. The mono-pole tower will sit in the center of a 70-feet by 70-feet built-up rock pad. The pole itself will be 87-feet from the property line that runs between the sewer plant property and the railroad tracks. That puts the edge of the rock pad approximately 52-feet from the property line.

During the council's October 16 meeting Griffin made a motion to table the approval until the November meeting. However, no one seconded the motion.

Near the end of the discussion Griffin said, "I don't feel quite comfortable making the decision yet."

During a roll call vote Griffin voted "No." Voting "Yes" were Joe Pollard, Mitchell W. Smith, Joy Gray, Gina R Thomas, Harold Timmerman, Tony Staton, and Juanita Wilson.

Vertical Bridge is only responsible for the construction of the cell tower. Once the cell tower is completed Verizon will send a crew to wire and mount the cell transmitters/receivers.

Red marker location of future cell tower. Sewer plant lower right.

Photo provided by Vertical Bridge.