Radio tower on Middle Bald Mountain draws fire
By Linda Bell
Correspondent
A Larimer County proposal to construct a 40- to 60-foot, lattice-style
radio communication facility with two 6-foot diameter microwave dishes
on the 11,000-foot summit of Middle Bald Mountain near Red Feather Lakes
is getting close scrutiny.
The Mummy Range Institute, a private, nonprofit educational forum in Red
Feather Lakes, in December debated the tower's merits and is asking for
more time for public comment.
Because the site is located in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest,
the Canyon Lakes Ranger District is analyzing the county's proposal. The
U.S. Forest Service also manages about six miles of access land, where
power poles would be erected.
The Forest Service on Dec. 1 sent out a request for public input on the
facility, noting it could augment spotty emergency radio coverage in the
upper Poudre Canyon and Red Feather Lakes area. The deadline for public
comment on the project analysis has been extended to Jan. 22.
Besides the tower and powerlines, the county expects to construct a 360-square-foot
building and a quarter-mile access road from forest road 517 to the summit,
at a cost of about $750,000 to build the project. The county will also
have to pay the Forest Service $150,000 for the review mandated by the
National Environmental Policy Act, according to David Rowe, the county's
microwave systems administrator, whose office submitted the proposal.
The Middle Bald Mountain tower is part of a larger $8 million project to
link five towers that could upgrade the current VHF (very high frequency)
system currently used by area emergency services to an 800 MHz system.
The new system would link the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and local
fire districts with Fort Collins police, Colorado State Patrol and Poudre
Fire Authority.
In addition, the Forest Service is seeking input from other electronic
communication providers who would be interested in locating at the site
if it were built.
A lively discussion among some 20 Mummy Range Institute members and community
representatives brought out passionate feelings about the mountain, which
some call their local Matterhorn, a visual icon for Red Feather Lakes residents
and visitors. They questioned whether the county would actually get the
adequate radio coverage it needs from the projected tower and if the county
could afford the scheme.
Margaret Reid, longtime resident in the village, said she thought it was
the Forest Service's policy to protect the national heritage. MRI member
Bob Lagow said the county's own master plan includes a planning project
in conjunction with four other counties to protect the mountain backdrop
as a way to preserve the foothills landscape.
Two members of the Red Feather Lakes Plan Advisory Committee, Ross Reid
and Michael Sledge, agreed they felt let down by county planning officials
who must have been aware of this proposal but never mentioned it during
the extensive discussions regarding the area's pristine viewscape.
Sledge said he hoped the public comment period could be extended since
many people are busy during the holiday season and would not have time
to focus on this issue. He noted it took two years for the county and Forest
Service to agree on a garbage transfer site in Red Feather Lakes, and he
questioned why the county and Forest Service expect to build an eyesore
with less than two months for public input.
Following the MRI open meeting, members of the organization came to the
following conclusions:
The Mummy Range Institute will not take a position on Larimer County's
proposal to place a communication tower on Middle Bald Mountain until more
information is made public. MRI will undertake the necessary research to
determine the relevant facts and then take a public position.
However, at a time when the county has so many unmet needs, MRI questions
the projected cost and wonders whether this tower will actually improve
emergency communications.
Larimer County has historically committed to the preservation of ridgelines
and mountain backdrops. MRI fails to see why county leaders would choose
to despoil Middle Bald Mountain, the most prominent and unspoiled peak
in the Red Feather Lakes region.
Minimal information from project promoters combined with the short public
comment deadline make more difficult a thorough investigation of the tower
proposal. MRI counsels the need for close coordination between the county,
Forest Service and residents to properly judge the merits of this proposal.
MRI resolves to be closely involved in this process.
Rowe said the need for better radio communications has been expressed by
all the local volunteer fire departments in the Poudre and Red Feather
Lakes area. The county started looking at plans to upgrade its communications
system before 2000, when a consulting firm was hired to identify the best
line-of-sight locations.
At that time, Pacific Consulting found South Bald Mountain to be the best
location, he said, and in early 2003 the county sent a proposal to the
Forest Service to approve that site. The Forest Service declined it, Rowe
said, because the summit is in a designated roadless area.
The next best site identified was Middle Bald Mountain, Rowe said, and
in July 2003 the county submitted a proposal to the Forest Service after
very comprehensive studies to assess conditions for the four criteria needed
- radio coverage, clean line-of-sight, power and a road.
In 2004, the Forest Service accepted that proposal as an application, which
eventually resulted in the Dec. 1 scoping letter, he said. The reason for
the long delay, Rowe said, is that the Forest Service was understaffed,
and at the time there was no designated special projects person to oversee
the application. With Forest Service participation, the county hired Mangi
Environmental Group of McLean, Va., to scope and engineer the project.
Rowe said he expected the public review process and NEPA assessments to
take at least a year, during which time there will be a public meeting
on the analysis.
He said if Middle Bald Mountain does become a designated Forest Service
communications site, the public will be asked to comment on whether it
should be for public safety only, or become available to low-power commercial
or even high-power commercial facilities requiring larger, lighted towers,
Rowe explained. The proposed 40- to 60-foot tower in the public-safety-only
category is not high enough to require lights, he said.
Of the five towers that would complete the entire line-of-sight system,
two were built this year on Bull Mountain near the Laramie River Road and
on Pole Mountain in Wyoming, Rowe said. A tower at Bear Gulch northwest
of Crystal Lakes on private property is already a commercial FM radio tower,
and the county has a permit to use it for two years, he said. Besides the
proposed tower on Middle Bald, the county plans to build another at Glacier
View Meadows.
Comments on the initial scope of the Forest Service study on the proposal
to build a radio communications tower on the summit of Middle Bald Mountain
can be sent to Communications Site, The Mangi Environmental Group, 7915
Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22102 or to larimercounty@mangi.com. More
information is available by contacting the Forest Service's Carol Kruse
at ckruse@fs.fed.us or 295-6663.
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