Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
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-—ftappatjannocfe iletog— Established 1877 An Independent Newspaper Published Every Wednesday ARTHUR W. ARUNDEL, PUBLISHER Barbara C. Wayland, Executive Editor and General Manager Peter W. Arundel, President John T. Toler Executive Vice President To Subscribe Phone (540) 675-3338 BY MAIL: $21 a year in Rappahannock County $27 a year elsewhere in the United States Bach Copies: Recent 2 months, 50 cents Older copies to 1960, $5 (as available) Office: Rappahannock News Building, Washington, Va. 22747-0059 Telephone (540) 675-3338 Fax: (540) 675-3088 e-mail: RappNewsOtlmeapapers.com Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Fnday Member, Audit Bureau of Circulations www.timescommunity.com WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2001
Our View
Cell Tower Blues
County officials did their jobs, hozv about you ?
The Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, as any well-informed Rappahannock resident should know by now, dictates that “No State or local statute or regulation, or other State or local legal requirement, may prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the ability of any entity to provide any interstate or intrastate telecommunications service.” This led to radical changes in the County telecommunications ordinance that had before restricted cell towers to the Chester Gap area, in conflict with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It took four drafts before the new ordinance was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 6, 1999, and that final draft gave the County probably all of the power it could possibly have to control cell tower emplacement, and not be in violation of the act. The ordinance does not and can not require an applicant to provide cell phone coverage in all areas and for all people in the County. It does not and can not require County officials to determine appropriate locations for cell towers, or to select from a menu of designs. It does not prohibit, however, the residents of the County from lobbying for or against a site or design or for the extent of the network, and it does not prohibit an applicant from being influenced from public opinion. Sprint PCS was obviously influenced by a unanimous voice at a preliminary discussion of their first application at a Planning Commission meeting in September of 2000; that voice told them to go away and try again if they might, and they did so. Sprint PCS’ second application was met not with a unanimous voice, but by and large with a babble. Only in the case of the Amissville site was there a clear and consistent message from
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