This is how it all started:
Sauk County is planning to build a 250 foot communications tower at the intersection of Jones Road and Thuli Road in Spring Green. The planned location of this tower will create a MONSTROSITY in our midst and must be MOVED! Without your involvement NOW to change this decision our community values, quality of life and efforts to improve the community will suffer for years to come. If a new antenna is needed it should be built in Spring Green. The county's own communications engineer stated recently in a meeting in Spring Green that, "I would love nothing better than to build this tower right in downtown Spring Green". Right the Sauk County Communications Infrastructure Committee (CIC) wants the tower built at the foot of the bluff. Their own engineer said that moving the tower away from the bluff towards Spring Green will increase coverage!
Are the efforts of the community to make Sauk County a proud national model of prairie and river restoration and preservation going to be compromised for political reasons? Will the efforts to preserve the Lower Wisconsin Riverway for the past 20 years be eroded by the location of this tower? Will the work of the Nature Conservancy Center outside Spring Green to purchase and restore our beautiful prairie preserve be desecrated? It is no secret that many of the supervisors on the CIC and the county board are politically opposed to those who want to protect the river from development. Personal political agendas should not be used to prevent this tower from its proper location. Please read this entire page and contact the Sauk County Board of Supervisors. Check this page every few days for updates. Email your friends the URL of this page. We need your help during the months of August and September 2004 to correct this problem.
Not only will this tower be visible from the Wisconsin River for up to six miles, it will have a flashing white strobe light and another red beacon light at the top! All citizens and friends of the Spring Green area who care about our environment should immediately contact the elected officials. There are many questions to be asked and answered about this tower location, including:
Do the residents of the Spring Green area approve of this location and its impact? Why in the world is the CIC not working together with the residents, Spring Green officials and the Riverway Board to find an optimal solution satisfactory to everyone?
Is this antenna even needed? What areas cannot be reached by the existing antennas on the Spring Green water tower? Spring Green upgraded their police and fire communication systems just two years ago. Where are the county engineering studies showing that a new system is needed?
Is this tower even needed? Every police officer and fireman who spoke at the recent CIC meeting said the same thing, "first responders pagers are not working well." The real problem is that they are using tiny pagers with no external antenna. Larger pagers with longer external antennas would provide better communications. This was acknowledged by the CIC engineer at the recent meeting in Loganville.
Does the proposed Thuli Road tower location even make sense topologically? It is too far to the east and too far to the north. The tower is right at the base of the northern bluffs and in the east where the river is closest to the bluff. To the east the bluff moves south slightly putting the area to the east towards Williams Road out of sight. From this location you cannot see to the Lone Rock Airport to the west because the bluff runs almost parallel to Jones Road before it bends to the northwest before Highway 23. If you are at Lone Rock airport and look west your view is blocked by the bluff at County G. But from the airport the Spring Green water tower is in clear sight standing tall, alone and unobstructed. If this single new 250 foot tower is supposed to cover the entire river valley on the north side of the river and to County Line Road in Lone Rock then it is obviously in the wrong location. Because the Sauk County portion of the river valley that Spring Green occupies is to the north of the river, the ideal location would be south by the river so it would look north into the bluffs. Splitting the distance from County Line Road in Lone Rock and to a little bit east of Thuli Road, the ideal spot would be at Kennedy Road and Big Hollow Road. Unfortunately a tower there would be a danger for planes landing at the Lone Rock airport as well as to the many planes that fly the riverway for navigation. Ironically this is the original site proposed by the CIC, but because of the Riverway, the airport, a nearby subdivision and the Spring Green ET zone this site was ruled out. Therefore the best location is in Spring Green!
What about free public wireless access to the the Internet? You can walk into any Starbucks restaurant or airport with a laptop computer with a wireless card and access the Internet for free. Should the county build a system for their own use but not allow the taxpayers to also have cheap wireless access to the Internet? Wireless access would benefit every taxpayer, the schools and promote economic development county-wide. Has this been considered? Will the placement of these towers throughout the county support public wireless access? Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US outsourced every ear to Indai alone. This is possible because India has invested in high-speed Internet communications networks. If the CIC would build a high-speed wireless access to the Internet throughout Sauk County, we could work at from for companies across the world and not have to drive farther for jobs that pay less. This same network based on Internet standards also allow first responders to communicate anywhere in the county using the same network as every resident.
The county already has laws and regulations advising them to co-locate and consolidate new communications facilities and infrastructure to avoid paying duplicate costs. Chapter 23.08(3) "Collocation/sharing of facilities. No new tower shall be permitted unless the applicant demonstrates by reasonable and credible evidence that no existing tower or structure can accommodate the applicant's proposed antenna." Are these rules being followed by this project?
What are the other adverse effects of these kinds of lighted towers when located away from existing development? Are we needlessly introducing "technology sprawl and blight" into our rural/natural areas for no reason? Where is the environmental impact study for this tower?
What effect will a powerful 24 hour white strobe light and a red beacon light have upon migratory birds such as the Sandhill crane and their nesting habits?
What effect will this tower and its supporting wires have on the local eagle population? Some other towers have caused many bird deaths. Do we want to be killing eagles for no reason? The DNR has an article on the subject, "Battered by the Airwaves?".
