Towering politics downtown

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor

Suzanne Wilson left the Center Gallery and walked up Lake Street to get a bite to eat at Art’s Bar one morning last December, as she has almost every day. The sharp lake wind she’s come to expect was blowing in Old Man Winter for his annual visit. She walked by a building project taking place behind Glen Arbor’s fire station, and at first it seemed like just an ordinary occurrence in this ever-expanding boom town. Nothing out of the ordinary happening in Glen Arbor today.
But when Suzanne learned that a 195-foot transmitting tower for emergency services and cellular phone users was being constructed in the heart of her town, her mood changed to anything but passive. “We were horrified,” she said. “We were aware something was going on because of all the trucks bringing metal, but it wasn’t until I saw the base of the tower that I realized how big it was going to be.”
Wilson and a number of other locals feel that the tower severely tarnishes the natural beauty of Glen Arbor, including scenic views from places like the sand dunes, Miller Hill and Inspiration Point. “In a tourist economy like ours which thrives around natural beauty, you better be aware of the tower’s appearance over all the treetops,” she said. “It’s sort of like a giraffe sitting in your living room, it makes the pretty furniture look small.”
The tower that Wilson hates so much was installed six months ago by Noverr Publishing Incorporated, a Traverse City based cellular phone and communications company that is putting towers up all over Leelanau County to better serve its cellular phone users. NPI has installed towers in seven different townships in Leelanau County and has plans to build more in the near future. According to Kevin N. Flynn, General Manager of NPI, the towers are necessary every 5-6 miles in Leelanau County due to the hilly topography.
But it wasn’t the idea of easier cellular phone access for the public that convinced the Glen Arbor Township Board to have a monopole tower erected in the heart of town. Instead, NPI gave the Board an offer it couldn’t refuse last fall when it agreed to lease a 17.5 by 22.5 foot space behind the fire station for $500 a month and build the tower free of charge. More importantly for Glen Arbor, the deal allowed the township to put up a new antenna for local emergency radio systems at no cost. The antenna, which currently sits halfway up the tower at 100 feet, will be elevated to the top, 195 feet off the ground, as soon as it’s approved by the FCC. In addition, NPI donated three cellular phones to the township to be used in the ambulance and other emergency vehicles.
“The early warning system’s not quite completed yet,” said John De Puy, Glen Arbor’s fire chief. “The antenna will enhance our ability to reach dispatchers we couldn’t pick up with the old tower. The higher up you go — the more coverage you have.” Glen Arbor’s old transmitting tower, which was torn down to make room for the NPI tower, stood only 100 feet tall, a mere shadow of the newer one. According to the local firemen, the old tower was an outdated dinosaur with limited range. “There were some dead spots with the old tower,” De Puy said. “It wouldn’t always transmit over the hills, the backsides of Miller Hill and Alligator Hill in particular. The tower is the only way we have of notifying dispatchers in an emergency.”
Volunteer fireman Matt Davis, who played a significant roll in bringing the tower to Glen Arbor, agrees. “None of us want big, ugly towers,” Davis said. “But something had to be done with the old one. It was so outdated that people wouldn’t even climb to the top and fix it.” Davis is not only a member of the Emergency Service and Advisory Board that recommended the approval of NPI’s tower to the Township Board. He also serves on the Board, which voted unanimously, 5-0, in favor of the tower. “It’s a great deal for Glen Arbor,” said Davis, referring to the tower and the cellular phones. “An ambulance has to have a cellular phone and NPI gave us three for free. There are times when you need to talk to a doctor and you don’t have time to stop and call.”
Many local residents certainly feel safer with up-to-date emergency warning systems, in case they ever find themselves in an emergency situation. “I think the tower’s a necessary thing,” said Glen Arbor resident Linda Ihme. “We need to have it with all the people coming to the Homestead in the summer, it’s nice to know the ambulance is coming.”
Still, some feel that the giant silver monster is luminous and ugly enough, that it wasn’t worth the deal. “If the Township Board gets cellular phones and $500 a month, it’s still a pretty small fee to ruin the views from the Sand Dunes, Miller Hill, Inspiration Point, or any place you get a long view,” said Wilson. “Even if it doesn’t bother someone esthetically, it’s a stupid economic move.” Kristin Hurlin, another concerned local, thinks the Board was taken for a ride by NPI. “In Bloomfield Hills it costs $100,000 a month to rent space for a transmitting tower,” she said. “I think the Board got ripped off.”
What Hurlin and Wilson say bother them the most about the tower however, is that they didn’t know it was going up until the construction actually began, a full month and a half after the decision was officially approved by the Township Board. “I was frustrated we were not properly notified ahead of time,” said Wilson. “There were no organized public hearings and no public input. There was a very little thing in the paper, but all the other townships had public hearings.” Wilson is convinced that given a chance, the community would have rallied together and prevented the building of the tower in the center of town.
Ironically the Township Board meetings — held on the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. — have always been open to the public. The Board members feel that more outside participation in the tower decision might have prevented any public feelings of alienation. “There were open meetings and articles in the paper about it,” said Ben Whitfield, the Township Supervisor. “Anybody could have come in and voiced their opinion about it.”
Whitfield also claims that the Board had nowhere else to put a tower, and that is why he favored the deal with NPI. “The question I’ve asked people is, if it doesn’t go there, where would you like to put it?” Whitfield said. “Where does a 500 lb. gorilla sleep? We needed the early warning system, we needed the cellular phones, and along came NPI.”
Regardless of whether the NPI tower was necessary or whether it could have gone somewhere else, the most disturbing thing expressed by the local citizens has been the lack of communication between the public and the Township Board, which is supposed to represent the public. Matt Davis recently told the Glen Arbor Sun that he thinks the Board could have done a little more to notify the public about the decision to build a tower before it made the deal with Noverr Publishing.
But that still does not entirely excuse the local residents concerned with preserving natural esthetics who failed to show up at the monthly Board meetings during which the NPI tower deal was discussed. Their apathy towards local government helped build the 195-foot tower which they can only scoff at now.