New cell tower a concern

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Rogers Communications came and presented in front of Wheatland Council on April 7 about a new cell tower that is proposed to going up in the area of Highway 21 and Township 263.
However, this location may prove to be a safety hazard for the landing and take off of planes, as there are airport runways that would be right beside the tower.
Several concerned residents of the area came to listen to the presentation and were clearly frustrated with Rogers’ plan.
“There is a protocol on each tower, is designed for a city and if your tower is 100 metres, which this one is, they only have to contact people three times that around there, ” said Calvin Murray, owner of Early Bird Air Ltd., who flies planes in the area.
Murray is enthused with the steps made by the county in this situation.
“They’re going to send a non-concurrence letter saying they want that location moved but they have no jurisdiction over Rogers,” said Murray.
“In fact nobody does, Transport doesn’t and Industry Canada says, ‘okay you can contact everybody within 300 metres of the tower and there’s no complaints, you can go ahead.’ What we’re hoping is the county may have a little more bite, that in fact by sending this letter, it may in fact make Rogers have a second look.”
He believes that Rogers did not look at the area surrounding the tower thoroughly
“They didn’t do their homework because this runway has been in operation for two years, it’s registered now. When they started looking at it, it wasn’t registered but that doesn’t matter as private runways are just as important,” said Murray.
“You could ask any neighbor in this area within a 15 mile radius and they would tell you these runways are here and there. I come out here in the summer time, you would see three to four spray planes working off this strip, which is landing and taking off every 20 minutes.”
Murray was disappointed with Rogers’ actions after their presentation.
“They didn’t address anything we said, they didn’t even talk about anything that we had brought up. They just got up at the end and said we’d like our letter of concurrence which tells me that they didn’t really care,” said Murray.
He would like in the end to see the tower moved down Highway 564 with the other ones as a tower is needed.
Wheatland County’s Chief Administrative Officer Alan Parkin confirmed that they will be sending a letter out to get the tower relocated.
“Council will be sending a letter of non-concurrence that we don’t concur with the location and further review on the location to see if there is somewhere more suitable on an existing tower rather than installing a new one,” said Parkin. “There maybe are other requirements for Rogers to put other parameters on there so it’s more easily identifiable.”
Parkin said that reception is a problem out there and requires a tower.
“There are gaps in cell coverage in that area, so there needs to be something done and the county is trying to move it forward but in the safest manner possible,” said Parkin.
“At the end of the day if Rogers wants to install it there and something happens, they have that liability. I’m hopeful that Rogers will find a more suitable location that satisfies everybody’s needs.”