Residents speak out against cell tower

POLSON — A structure built on private property, outside of zoning limits, has probably never received so much attention, but the prospect of a cell phone tower being erected on Haack Road has area residents teaming up to try and stop it.

After seeing an article on the proposed 190-foot Verizon cell phone tower in the Nov. 18 edition of the Leader, Mary Frances Caselli, a resident south of the tower on Haack Road, was incensed. The article, she said, was the first she’d heard of the tower, which will go up between her 26 acres of land and Flathead Lake.

“We aren’t against cell phone towers, just put it back on the hill a little,” she said. “Why put it smack dab in the middle? The fact that Verizon didn’t notify anybody is pretty shady.”

Caselli’s concern over not being notified seems to be an affront that all homeowners in the area are upset over. If they had been notified, Caselli said they could have told the cell phone company of their concerns about the potential affects the tower will have on the local bird population, which includes blue herons, blue birds and Canada geese.

Dan Casey, of the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), said it’s hard to speculate on the affects of any particular cell tower, but did say tall towers with lights do pose risks for nocturnal migrant birds, which could become confused by the glow. ABC’s website says “up to 50 million birds are killed each year at communications towers. The aviation warning lights on the towers disrupt the birds’ celestial navigation and draw them into a halo of light. The birds then become trapped and circle endlessly, colliding with each other and the tower, or eventually dropping to the ground from exhaustion.”

Maryetta Bauer, a homeowner on the corner of Haack and Dupuis Rd., is also upset over the handling of the tower situation. While the birds are certainly a concern, she also expressed issues with the “visual pollution” the tower will create.

“It’s just unfortunate something like this happened to pit neighbors against each other instead of coming up with a solution everyone was satisfied with,” Bauer said. “I will be offended by it being there when I have to see it everyday when I go to town instead of a field of brown cows. It won’t be country anymore. None of us landowners were notified and I don’t think that’s fair.”

The other point that has upset Bauer and Caselli is that Lakeview Cemetery in Polson has open space and is willing to lease land to Verizon. Dana Deranleau, the cemetery superintendent, said a cell-phone provider “six or seven years ago” approached him to see if the cemetery would lease land for a tower. While he can’t remember whether the company was Verizon, Deranleau said he got the go ahead from the cemetery’s board and was prepared to lease the land but the company backed out. The area is still suitable for such a tower, he said.

“It will give them 190 feet plus an additional 200 feet because it’s on the hill,” Deranleau said. “It’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned. There’s low population, it’s out of the way and the area is not going to be used in a long time; what’s not to like? It would benefit the cemetery, which is a non-profit organization. We run on a budget and it’s a tight budget so this would take it through the roof with the lease revenue.”

Jim Blodgett, vice president of the Viewpoint Homeowners Association on Haack Rd., originally complained about the tower when he learned it would be built 70 feet from the nearest homeowner’s property in his development. He visited with the Lake County Commissioners last week, who vowed to write a letter to Verizon “expressing dissatisfaction with the way they deal with the public.”

“The county doesn’t have a cell tower ordinance and this is an unzoned area, so really our ability to help the public is limited,” Commissioner Paddy Trusler said. “If you don’t have land use regulations, you can’t even begin to investigate. This is our first instance of a tower in an unzoned area, so that’s why we haven’t been compelled to create an ordinance because we didn’t think we needed to.”

Trusler said all county cell phones, about 125 or 130, use Verizon as their wireless service, but this case has him contemplating a service provider switch.

“This is an instance of corporate America being more concerned about their bottom line than public opinion,” he said. “If the county did this, without a public review or public comment, we’d be looking at a recall real quick.”

Blodgett planned to appear before the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council Tuesday, but CSKT spokesman Robert McDonald said the tribes have limited options in such an instance.

“The fact of the matter is this is on private land, surrounded by other fee land parcels, and we tend not to get involved with these issues on privately owned property unless there’s some clear cut reason to get involved, like a trespass onto tribal property,” McDonald said.

What irks Bauer is that there seems to be a perfectly suitable place that won’t bother anybody.

“At the cemetery there’s a site approved for that won’t be in somebody’s face,” Bauer said. “My grandma and grandpa are up there and I don’t think they’d be upset at all.”