Orange County NC Website
Approved 9/10/2013 <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 7/8/2013 Page 13 of 82 <br /> <br />Larry Wright: So after October, this session …. 1 <br /> 2 <br />Rusty Monroe: This session would still be held for a new tower. We are talking about increasing the height of existing 3 <br />facilities. 4 <br /> 5 <br />Mark Micol: What is the maximum buildout of this tower? 6 <br /> 7 <br />Rusty Monroe: I believe it is 199 feet. 8 <br /> 9 <br />Mark Micol: What is the maximum for it to go higher? What is the maximum that you could incrementally increase? 10 <br /> 11 <br />Rusty Monroe: We would have to have structural redone on those increased heights. I don’t know what the current 12 <br />structure capability is. I know they can be reinforced if necessary. 13 <br /> 14 <br />Samantha Cabe: And if they go higher than 200 feet, there is the requirement that they have the lighting? 15 <br /> 16 <br />Rusty Monroe: Yes, but that the county can control. It is allowed to prohibit towers that need to be lighted. 17 <br /> 18 <br />Larry Wright: That would go through a Class A special use permit? 19 <br /> 20 <br />Michael Harvey: That is the argument staff would make whether or not that would be legally defensible in a court of 21 <br />law, we have no clue yet. 22 <br /> 23 <br />Rusty Monroe: We are not commenting on the positives or negatives on this, that is for your judgment. All we want to 24 <br />do is to let you make informed decisions and determinations. 25 <br /> 26 <br />Karen Kemerait: I would like to point out that based upon increasing the height of the tower and having the issue 27 <br />about being lit and getting FAA approval for a lit tower and having to come back for potentially a special use permit 28 <br />hearing, for a Class A Special Use Permit, this tower is designed to accommodate four carriers and it is not an 29 <br />insignificant proposition to increase the height of the tower that has already been constructed and designed at 199 feet 30 <br />so there is room for three additional carriers at 199 feet. 31 <br /> 32 <br />Larry Wright: If you put a lightning rod on this, does it require light? 33 <br /> 34 <br />Karen Kemerait: To be more accurate, the tower itself is 195 feet with a four foot lightning bar so the tower itself with 35 <br />that four foot lightning rod is 199 feet. 36 <br /> 37 <br />Michael Harvey: Mr. Chairman that is stipulated in the application. If Ms. Kemerait is finished, the next person to 38 <br />speak is Art Menius. 39 <br /> 40 <br />Art Menius: I live in White Cross and I have been sworn in. I appreciate the chance to speak. These devices are a 41 <br />miracle. They let us, in many different ways, conduct worldwide business and still have the rural life in Orange County 42 <br />that we value. Some 30 years ago, I would have given anything to live like we live and work like we want to work 43 <br />without having to make so many compromises. The compromise we have to make is the towers. I was gone from 44 <br />home for almost eight years and half that time, I was at the end of the road at the top of the mountain in southeast 45 <br />Kentucky in a county where the per capita income was $11,000.00. I had hardwired internet 10 times faster than I 46 <br />have here in Orange County. I had reliable wireless all the time, up on my mountain top or driving through my holler in 47 <br />this remote location but I come back home to Orange County and my house in White Cross, I could walk from here to 48 <br />the chairman and go from 4G to 3G to 1X to no service and back up through 1X and 3G and 4G by the time I got to 49 <br />the chairman. My house is a mismatch of service and if I don’t hold my head just right, I will lose a call. I can’t do 50 <br />business that way. Just this morning, I had to defer two calls to face meetings in Carrboro this afternoon because we 51