Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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closeMonday, May. 04, 2009
New tower to improve west Pasco cell service
By Joe Chapman, Herald staff writer
PASCO -- A 60-foot communication tower that's to be erected in a rural part of west Pasco later this year will stand taller than trees, buildings and the 35-foot-high utility poles nearby.
The tower will transmit signals for US Cellular, which is leasing ground for the tower and a related equipment building from Scott and Denise Howell at the corner of Franklin Road and Road 68. The company picked that spot after Pasco School District declined to let the communication equipment be installed at McLoughlin Middle School.
Zoning in the area allows a tower as tall as 100 feet. The Franklin County Commission last week granted the permit, with no objection from nearby landowners.
The tower is intended to improve cell phone service in the area bound by Roads 54 and 84, Court Street and Argent Road.
It will be what the company calls a "stealth" design, with all the antenna equipment hidden inside a flagpole-like cylinder. It has room for other communication companies to install equipment as well, reducing the need for separate towers, said Dan MacKinney, a US Cellular consultant.
McLoughlin Middle School's site would have been equally suitable because it's on high ground, MacKinney said.
Commissioner Brad Peck said it struck him as odd that the school district didn't accept the tower.
"They generally are in great need of revenue, and here's a fairly, I would think, neutral structure to generate funds for the school district," Peck observed.
The district also declined for communication equipment to be installed at Edgar Brown Stadium a few years ago. Instead, St. Patrick's Parish accepted a tower on its property nearby.
The contract for that tower generates $6,000 to $7,000 annually for the parish and Catholic school.
The school district doesn't have a policy prohibiting communication equipment on its property, said Larry Mayfield, assistant superintendent for business and operations.
"The school district could certainly use the money," he said. "But in terms of the offset for that, it just wasn't a positive move for the district."
The district considers such opportunities individually, he said, but the administration generally avoids committing to deals that will limit options for property development.
The equipment US Cellular wanted to put at McLoughlin Middle School wouldn't have required a tower, because the antenna equipment would have been installed on the building. But the equipment building would have been a problem, Mayfield said.
As for the equipment near Edgar Brown Stadium, the company that installed it wanted to attach an antenna to a light post. The district turned that down because it may have required the post to be reinforced, which could have been detrimental to the stadium's overall appeal, Mayfield said.
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