Tower guidelines & electrical work decided by county

by Jazz Clark

Determining the height for a new cell tower and discussion over electrical upgrades ruled the March 22 meeting of the Morgan County Commission.

Bill Clark, Economic Development Director, told county officials he wants the best tower possible given budget constraints.

The most likely location for the new tower, once environmental assessments are completed, will be near Matthew Grimley Road in Great Cacapon. The tower will be used initially for emergency services radio equipment, but the commission hopes to find cell companies who want to locate their equipment on the tower to give people better phone service.

“Taller is better,” said Clark. “The higher they are, the more space there is for things to attach. There has to be separation or the devices interfere with one another.”

One roadblock is that a higher tower can cause problems.

“If we go from a one mile radius to a two mile sight radius it might get in the way of archaeological surveys,” Clark said. “When you build a tower, what’s in sight of it matters. We can’t be in sight of a National Park like the C & O Canal. ”

Of the other sites being considered, one tower might be within sight of Maryland, which creates multiple conflicts of interest.

Approval was met and signed for a 250-foot tower, the minimum for what Clark thinks the area needs. Officials agreed that a 340-foot tower would have been better,
but wasn’t economically feasible.

Expenses such as buying or building a road to the tower make a 340-foot tower almost impossible to afford, said Clark.

In other business, the commissioners decided to use Hovermale’s Building and Electrical Company to fix a few problem spots at the county-owned Community Services building on 187 South Green Street.
An inspection by the Fire Marshall on February 1 sparked the need for updates and fixes to the existing electrical system. Hovermale’s was chosen over LBH and Beddow’s Electric because they had the lowest cost estimate at $2,275, said Commission President Stacy Dugan.

Both the current Senior Services and Boys and Girls Club sections of the building had multiple issues in regards to faulty lighting and blocked exits.

All hazards will have to be removed before Starting Points and the Boys and Girls Club settle into new spots in that building.