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communications. He has been talking to his colleagues about helping Orange County to develop a <br />wireless telecommunications component to the plan. <br />Bill Howard, Zoning Manager for American Tower Corporation, said that he works with <br />the licensed carriers in any given industry, which includes Orange County. He agrees with Robert <br />Ekstrand in that the industry is interested in continuing to work with the County on the amendments to <br />the regulations. He said that in the period from 1998 to 2002 the number of subscribers more than <br />doubled to what is now over 130 million subscribers to licensed digital communications. This is why <br />there has been so much activity in telecommunications tower development. He emphasized that <br />American Tower has nine facilities in Orange County now. He made reference to the concern about the <br />199-foot telecommunications towers and the fact that this might be an effort to avoid coming before the <br />County Commissioners. He said that there is a federal threshold level involved at the 199-foot level, and <br />that is that anything under 200 feet does not have to be lighted. He also asked the County <br />Commissioners to consider exempting from the moratorium co-location applications on existing towers. <br />Todd Griffin, Real Estate Manager for Verizon Wireless, said that Verizon Wireless does <br />a lot of business in Orange County and they want to improve the system far their customers and also for <br />emergency communication services. They are looking forward to being a part of this process and would <br />like to offer their services to educate the elected boards during this process. <br />Joey Greene, Real Estate Manager for Crown Castle, said that they do not function as a <br />company that would build a very expensive structure for the use of one company, but that they try to <br />pursue multiple carriers. <br />Noah Ranells is a neighbor of a proposed telecommunications tower on Buckhorn Road. <br />He requested that other citizens have this primer available to them as to what is appropriate to present at <br />a meeting and what is not. He made reference to a third party objective analysis that citizens and <br />Boards can look to for another opinion. He feels the system needs to be looked at an a countywide <br />basis. He asked the County Commissioners to please consider a solid moratorium that restricts all <br />towers until citizens in the County are educated on language, propagation, co-location, etc. sa that they <br />can make pertinent comments. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that the third party objective analysis was very important and <br />she hopes we look into this and come up with a plan to provide this analysis. <br />Commissioner Brown asked Mr. Ekstrand where the tower is that they now have an <br />application far and Mr. Ekstrand said that it was at the intersection of NC 54 West and Gold Mine Road. <br />The proposed tower is 199 feet and it would be a monopole design. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that back in 1996 after Hurricane Fran, there were same <br />serious communication issues. He questioned if anything would be different today than in 1996 when <br />everybody decided to get on their cell phones. It was answered that there is always limited capacity, but <br />sites are starting to serve a more limited geographic area because the demand is higher. He said that <br />the capacity problems would not be as serious today because the infrastructure can absorb more <br />capacity. <br />Commissioner Brown asked Robert Ekstrand what his company could offer as help to <br />Orange County in the hazard mitigation plan. Mr. Ekstrand said that they could offer enhancements to <br />the EMS communications (staff within the department). Commissioner Brown asked for some written <br />information on what Mr. Ekstrand's company could offer the County. <br />Commissioner Carey asked the staff if we are including the co-location of <br />communications equipment on existing towers an the moratorium. Craig Benedict said that this was the <br />original intent, but it is subject to discussion. <br />Planning Board member Barry Katz asked about the proposed tower that was requested <br />to be exempted and Mr. Ekstrand said that Craven Castle would build it and it would accommodate four <br />other carriers. Verizon will be on the top of this structure. <br />Barry Katz asked if it is better to have the location of the transponder higher on the tower. <br />Robert Ekstrand said that usually when the problem is coverage, the higher the better up to a certain <br />